First time winner Casey eyes off more

Five years ago, Shepparton harness racing trainer Casey Leijen had never been to a harness racing meeting, much less sat in a sulky – now she can’t imagine life without the sport.

Leijen recorded her first training win at Bendigo earlier this month (July 10) with five-year-old mare Im Easy On The Eye (Sunshine Beach) and is in search of win number two at Bendigo tonight (July 24) with last-start placegetter Nells All Bliss.

See the fields for the Bendigo meeting at this link.

The 24-year-old got her first pony at the age of two, but harness racing was nowhere on her family’s radar until a chance meeting with Tatura couple Craig Turnbull and Rebecca Cartwright six years ago.

“I was out to dinner one night and I bumped into them through a lady who did my horses’ feet.  Craig said they needed someone to clean boxes. I worked for them for a year and a half before I even went to the races! I used to wonder how the drivers could even stay in the cart!” Leijen laughed.

“Then at work one day Craig asked if I wanted to drive one. That was really, really cool.  I started to drive a bit more and started going to the races more and I was hooked!”

Leijen spent time working for Shepparton trainer David Moran, then at the Nathan Jack stable, and began working towards getting her own trainer and driver licences.

“I saw the joy that trainers and drivers got, and I just wanted to be part of that. Nathan and I owned a horse together, and I guess that was where I really started to wish that she could be in my name as the trainer.”

Purchasing Im Easy On The Eye came through Leijen’s association with Shepparton horsewoman Bec Bartley, who drove the horse for her first win.

“Bec was training her, but the owners had decided to move her on.  I had already asked them if I could take her as a show horse when she’d finished racing, so they were happy for me to take her and have a go at training her myself,” Leijen said.

“The win was surreal. It was awesome.  I had pretty high hopes she could get the job done that night, and when she turned up the straight in front, I knew she was home,” she said.

“It was so lovely too that I had my whole family there, my mum, my dad and my two sisters, as well as the old owners. We were all jumping for joy!”

Leijen, who gets a hand from her sister Maddy, who has also obtained her stablehand licence, has two other horses racing, both through her friendship with Bartley.

“Nells All Bliss came from one of Bec’s owners, who was wanting to lease her out, and Bec saw Karuma Kev for sale and recommended to me that he’d be good to learn to drive on. My nanna, who lives in the UK, bought him for me,” she said.

Leijen is based at the Shepparton track, where Bartley also has her team.

“Bec is a great help and, without her, I probably wouldn’t have trained a winner, to be honest! But all the trainers here are just great.  They all look out for you and are more than willing to help which is the best thing,” she said.

“Not coming from a harness racing family, there are lots of things you don’t know, or need advice about, and they’re all too happy to help.

“I think I’m in it for the long haul now.  I grew up knowing I would do something with horses, and this is it.  I do some agistment at home and I still have my riding horses and can head to shows.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink