Patience shines through for breaker and trainer

Respected Victorian horse breaker Nathan Cahir’s stock-in-trade is patience, and plenty of it – but it’s also bringing results with his small harness racing team.

Cahir’s clients range from small hobby trainers to large stables including Jess Tubbs and Greg Sugars and the Lee family and “everything in between”, but he keeps his hand in with a small team of racehorses as well.

His patience has paid off with six-year-old gelding Nai Harn Bay (Somebeachsomewhere), who Cahir believes only turned the corner in 2023.

The last start (July 27) Horsham winner’s season record is two wins and five placings, and he’s failed to weigh in only twice in his 12 starts.  It’s a contrast from the patchy form that frustrated Cahir earlier in the pacer’s career.

“He’s always had ability, but he would put in a good run, and the next he’d be a completely different horse and he’d have you scratching your head and wondering what went wrong,” Cahir said.

“But to be fair has had a foot issue really from his yearling season when he had a bad abscess – I don’t think it fully resolved itself until now. Finally being able to fully grow that foot out properly and getting good hoof wall at last has been a big part of the reason he’s going so consistently.

“But when you’ve got a physical issue it’s often the case that you end up with mental issues as well – and now he’s obviously not feeling that foot anymore and concentrating much better.

“I made some other minor gear and work changes which on their own you don’t think make much difference, but you can have all the ingredients…it’s getting the recipe right!”

Cahir currently has four horses racing and another three-year-old a month from the trials.

“It’s more than I would normally like to have, but it’s just panned out that way.  I break in around 40 most seasons so four is really more than I can handle to race,” he said.

“Thankfully I have Jen Douglas’s son Brock Gibson helping me and he’s been here since Christmas.

“He’s been around horses all his life and is a good driver.  He’s helped me a lot with the racehorses, particularly Nai Harn Bay, because I’ve been able to work them together. Nai Harn Bay pulls when he is worked on his own, so it’s difficult to get him to rate his work at home.  With another horse he works much better and doesn’t cook himself.”

Cahir, who is based at Smythesdale near Ballarat, has been involved in harness racing since childhood.

“I grew up next to David Murphy, the Murphys are cousins of mine, so basically since the days of Vanderport (Cute Van) I have loved harness racing.  I think Vanderport was the second horse Don Murphy ever had in work, and as a young kid I got to see him travel the country, be Australian three-year-old of the year and contest an Inter Dominion at four.  Everyone in the town had the harness racing bug in those years and the Murphy stable just grew from there.

“I would always be at the stables with David before and after school, and when they set up a separate breaking and pre-training barn, Don taught me the ropes and I broke horses in there. I spent some time at Yabby Dam Farms and then set up my own place.”

Cahir said the best he had ever broken in was the David Murphy-trained It Is I (Golden Greek).

“It Is I ended up back here with me in retirement.  He’s over 20 now, but up until a year or so ago, he looked like you could have put him back into work.  The years are starting to catch up with him a bit now, but he’s still a lovely fellow. He was a natural.  The good ones often are, but there are plenty you think aren’t much until their second prep, when they wake up a bit and show what they can do.

“Just Believe (Orlando Vici) is the pick of the trotters I’ve broken in.  He had some spunk that’s for sure, but I had a great rapport with him.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink