On the road to a promising career

The country harness racing circuit of West Wyalong, in Central Western NSW, is nearly as far from the bright lights of Menangle that you can get – but a win at each track within 24 hours demonstrates the commitment and growing ability of Canberra concessional driver Taylah Osmond.

The third generation of her family to take up the sport, Taylah spent Friday on a three-and-a-half-hour road trip to the West Wyalong Cup meeting to get a winner for her grandfather Ian Osmond.

The next day she packed up and headed to Menangle to make the most of a much-anticipated opportunity in the Mates4Harness Young Stars Invitational, securing her first Metropolitan win on the appropriately named Unfazed (Auckland Reactor).

“We love to race at West Wyalong whenever we can, because they only have a couple of meetings a year,” Osmond said.

“Pop couldn’t be there, but he was watching and he was pretty happy that we got there with Six Again (Roll With Joe).  Then to get the win on the Saturday night was so exciting. It was my second win at Menangle, but my first in a Metropolitan class race.”

The Menangle victory was Taylah’s 20^th for 2022, her third season of driving, having recorded three in her first season and nine in her second.  She is now tracking at 14 percent wins to starters, in addition to her 22 percent place record, underlining her growing confidence and, Taylah says, the opportunities she is now getting on some “nice horses”.

“It was an honor to be invited to the Menangle race – it was only my third drive on a Saturday night,” she said.

“All the drivers were selected by HRNSW and the horses were allocated randomly.  I was pretty excited to get to drive Unfazed because he had such a great record and has a lot of ability.

“I had done a fair bit of research on him during the week and spoke to (usual driver) Gavin Fitzpatrick about how he would go and Gavin was really helpful.”

The research paid off, with Osmond driving a patient race in the one-out two-back slot before peeling on the corner and allowing Unfazed to open up and finish strongly to win by 5.8 metres.

The Osmond harness racing operation is a real family affair.  Ian Osmond took up the sport after moving to Canberra many years ago, having previously been involved with gallopers and equestrian.  His son Scott, Taylah’s dad, followed Ian into the sport, and is a hobby-trainer and driver.

Taylah, who finished Year 12 this year, is now tackling the sport full time, working for trainer James Rattray, as well as continuing to pull her weight with the Osmond team.

“I did pony trots for a long time, and then I started working weekends and part time for James about six months ago, because I was told I had to finish school! I’m loving doing it full time now and I’m learning a lot,” Taylah said.

“At home, Pop, dad and I are all involved, mum is great too and does a lot of the work behind the scenes and my brother Mitchell helps out too,” she said.

“We have about 13 horses in work and Pop is the trainer, but we all have our little teams.  I have four that are mine to do – Little Archie I’ve won six on, Fleetwood Rock’s won three for me, and Pass the Baton, who’s won one.  I’ve also got a two-year-old, When To Foldem. She’s had a few starts and I think will be okay. I’m loving the training but think I’m leaning a bit more towards the driving side at the moment. I’ll see how things go, though.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink