THE coach of controversial Stawell Women’s Gift winner Talia Martin has dismissed suggestions his stable was involved in a well-planned sting devised to bring home Easter riches.
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Ballarat coach Peter O’Dwyer told The Courier the 15-year-old’s form, including two past junior wins at Stawell, wasn’t consistent with a plot and that her below-par performance in Ararat in the lead-up was because of the death of her aunt.
“Talia effectively improved about three metres from her Ballarat run (in February) – if that’s a sting then we’ll live with that,” O’Dwyer said.
“If she improved three or four metres from her previous junior Stawell Gift win – if that interprets a sting, then that’s a sting. But that’s not a sting, it wasn’t a plan for us.”
O’Dwyer was responding to comments made by former Stawell Gift promoter David Culbert, who told The Age the result had “all the hallmarks of a 1960s Stawell Gift sting.”
“You cannot run 14.5 consistently all year - not just Ararat - then come to the Stawell Gift and run 13.7 and expect to get away with it and everyone to say that is fine,” Culbert said.
O’Dwyer said his group of runners and its support staff weren’t involved in any aggressive punting on Martin to take out the $40,000 first prize.
“Stings usually involve big betting plunges. In our stable, we had over 60 representatives at Stawell and we put $100 in total on Talia,” O’Dwyer said.
“That amounts to just over a dollar each.”
When questioned about his remarkable record in the feature events at Central Park – he coached Matt Wiltshire to Stawell Gift glory in 2012 and the last three women’s gift winners in Holly Dobbyn, daughter Grace and Martin – O’Dwyer said it could be put down to his vast experience.
“Obviously we have an annual plan, we have a plan for everything, we have a proven training program that I’ve developed over 30 years of being in the sport,” he said.
“I know that our training is number one.”
O’Dwyer said his athletes “peak well” and are instructed on how to deal with the mental side of the sport.
He admitted the stable had been lucky with its results to a certain extent.
“You have a look at Talia and have a look at Grace (O’Dwyer), they were both pretty much the slowest qualifiers into the final,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we’ve won some of those races really closely and obviously had a bit of luck on our side. And you need that, but if you’re prepared, luck comes your way.”
Martin was fined $2000 for her vastly improved time in Stawell compared to Ararat.
