Platinum Racing

I received an email from a Queanbeyan trainer (who shall remain nameless) which said in past "you seen the melbourne results yesterday you can train a good horse on the Queanbeyan track."

The email set me to thinking. If world champion sprinter Takeover Target was the only Gr 1 winner to ever come out of Queanbeyan - you could say "every dog has his day" - but of course he wasn't.

The first Gr 1 winner to be trained on the hilly and tight circuit was outstanding sprinter Wayne's Bid, trained by Frank Cleary, which won an AJC Galaxy.

Of course, Frank went on to repeat the dose when Catbird won the Golden Slipper for him - after having gone within a half length of winning the Slipper a few years earlier when Clan O'Sullivan was run down close home by Burst.

But back to the email which renminded me of yesterday's race results - and, for me (being a bushie through and through) the highlight of my day - when Karuta Queen severely beat up her rivals in winning the Gr 3 race for three years olds.

Yesterday's win elevated her in to the "corker" class. What a bonny little filly she is?

When she booted on the turn yesterday and put three on her rivals I was off the lounge, on my feet and rode harder than Tommy (Berry) for the last 200.

The win signalled that Karuta Queen had really arrived as a serious racehorse - and Neville "Nifty" Layt - the filly's trainer, and his wife Barbara, deserve the ride they are now on with this filly.

All the punduts wanted to knock her yesterday. There was a strong train of thought among the "professionals" (whoever they are) that Karuta Queen would not run a strong 1200 metres in good company - despite her having won a Magic Millions over that course earlier this year - and the knock was "big."

For Neville and Barbara it has been a very long, enduring and hard road which prompted Barbara to say on SKY after Karuta Queen won the Magic Millions that Nevillie was "an overnight success it just took 40 years."

I first met Neville in the late 60's - at a Saturday country meeting at Mudgee. His older brother Keith, was also a jockey and had moderate success in Sydney, but Neville like many other battling jockeys, rode work in town all week and had to travel to bush meetings on Saturday to get rides.

My old man was in the same boat. He would ride work at Randwick for Baden Hasler, Jack Hogan, Bob Bright, Frank Dalton and then go to Canterbury and ride work for Jack McCormack and maybe get a provincial ride every Thursday for his efforts - apart from getting paid for riding work.

We used to leave home at midnight on the Friday night to drive to Mudgee, Gulgong, Bathurst, Orange, Wellington, wherever the country meetings were and Mum would pack us up with the necessary thermos of tea and some sandwiches and away Dad and I would go. In those days jockeys were not paid up until an hour before the race and battling jockeys would haunt the float entrance offering their services to trainers and my old man even used to get to the track of a race morning and offer to ride work for local trainers.,

That day at Mudgee, Neville and Dad turned up early hawking for rides and they both snared a few with Neville winning the first on Bright Ingot for Binnaway trainer Archie Frater and Dad winning the second on My Scotsman for Mudgee trainer Neville Ferguson.

Both of them tired of the travel and Dad moved us all to Orange (initially) and Neville moved to Canberra where he linked up with multiple premiership winning trainer Jack Gordon as his No 2 rider behind the irrepressible Ted Doon.

Even in the middle of the cold Canberra winters "Black Jack" would work his horses early so Neville stayed back and then rode work for trainers like my eventual boss, and also multiple premiership winner Bob O'Sullivan, and he would then to drive to Queanbeyan to ride work for Alex McKenzie.

Neville was a worker. When other top riders of the day like Ashley Bawden, Warren Dunley and co were AWOL, Neville was a constant. He turned up every morning. 

When Reg Cook moved his stables from Randwick to Canberra Neville became his stable jockey. He was associated with some good horses in the 70's including What A Thrill (trained by Gordon) on whom Neville won a Tam O'Shanter (then a feature race on the Canberra calendar), Columban Lord, Nova Vega and a bonny little mare called Warrego Queen.

Warrego Queen was trained by Peter Martin in Canberra and raced by him and his wife, the ever emotional Pat, and she provided Neville with his only city win  as jockey (that I can remember) when she won a Saturday race at Warwick Farm.

What A Thrill was arguably the best named horse ever - being by Lights Out out of Entanglement! Ironically his Tam O'Shanter win came the week Neville and Barbara celebrated the birth of their daughter Nevara Sibelia Layt, which caused quite a stir in the era of Susan, Melanie, Janette and Melissa.

Nevara was of course the first three letters of Neville and the last three letters of Barbara. The Sibelia, according to Neville came from his deep affection for that wonderful pacing mare Sibelia, trained by the late Perc Hall.

Neville earned a living. He would invariably get full books at all the southern districts meetings, rode his share of winners, done his job well and he was always willing to help apprentices, not that us ingrates largely appreciated that at the time.

I remember one weekend after I had started riding that I had my tail up and had won at the Saturday meeting at Canberra on Ocean Prince for Queanbeyan trainer and (in my view) total nutter Alfie Fensom and I fronted up for the Monday meeting with a horse called Little Brutus, who was trained at Bungendore by Cec Broderick as my best ride.

I went to the races thinking I had two to beat - Wye, trained at Queanbeyan by (in my view) another nutter in Atilla Meszaros, who was to be ridden by Murray Irving (now a trainer at Queanbeyan) and Grey Cloud who was to be ridden by Neville.

I was determined I was going to bneat Wye as I had ridden the horse at his previous start and was narrowly beaten by Teddy Doon on Royal Vigil, a mare trained by "Black Jack." "Tilla" sacked me and Murray was my replacement and I was lucky enough to pick up the ride on the second favourite.

As my luck would have it, Wye hurt himself in the tie up stalls and was a late scratching and Lucky Brutus led throughout to beat Neville on Grey Cloud. Neville came over to me in the jockey's room after the race and complimented me on the way I had slowed them up mid race after winning the battle for the lead, but I was too much of a smart arse in those days to appreciate the compliment and like the kids of today thought "yadda yadda".

He was being Neville - I was being a jerk. Mind you he said he few uncomplimentary things to me at times, deserved, but again unheeded.

A bad leg break in the 1980's ended Neville's race riding career and he turned his hand to training and, like all bush trainers, he plied his trade all over the place, waiting for that one special horse.

His oldest son Jamie started riding as did his second son Adrian "Age" (who still rides today) but Neville and Barbara's world collapsed in 2002 when Jamie hung himself in Neville's stables on Queanbeyan cup day. Increasing weight and drug problems had taken their toll

The effect was devastating as Barbara did not go to the races from that day until Karuta Queen raced in the Magic Millions in January of this year.

And, I can never remember a time when Barbara was not at the races with Neville in my younger years. It was like Matey and Pat Molloy, Reg and Rosie Paine, Dave and Kathy Heywood, Norm and Robyn Dickens etc, great teams and great supporters - always at the races together.

Neville and Barbara have paid their dues and then some that most of us could not even begin to imagine. They have travelled hundreds of thousands of kilomteres in search of their holy grail and maybe, just maybe they have found the next Gr 1 winner to be trained out of Queanbeyan.

Karuta Queen has a way to go but she is a long way ahead of Woodcut, Kingston Shores, Tax Office, Willessee, Playastor, Helmsman, Willett, Carski Drum, Regular Prince, and the many other good horses that have come out of Queanbeyan.

From that day in the 60's when Bright Ingot won a maiden at Mudgee, the little man with the cigarette hanging out of his mouth would never have thought he would have been standing in the runners up stall after having chased home the best horse in the country and then standing in the winner;'s stall after having seen horses from all the top stables in Melbourne languishing in the wake of a horse he trained, would never have believed this possible.

A couple of years back Neville won the Black Opal with Sarethemare - and on that night he would have thought the world could not have got any better.

Well it has - and he deserves it.

I hope Karuta Queen goes on to to prove further "that you can train good horses on the Queanbeyan track."