New horizons bring winning results for hobby trainer

Harness racing hobby trainer Chris Feast couldn’t possibly be happier about the start he’s made at his family’s new training base in Western Australia’s beautiful southwest.

Feast and his wife Samantha committed themselves to developing a greenfields site at rural Hithergreen and have managed only a handful of starters over the past two seasons.

But the couple must be pinching themselves at their start to life on the new property, with three wins and two seconds from just eight starters.

“We basically bought a paddock and started from nothing, and it’s been a huge amount of work.  I work full time as a mechanic and because of time constraints, neither of our horses raced for ages, one 11 months and one 18 months,” Feast said.

“But we finally moved the horses on December 14 from our old place at Byford, which is about two hours away.  We’ve done a lot of kilometres over the last 12 or 18 months and I moved our last load on Sunday which was an awesome feeling!” he said.

“Byford was a racing stable environment and it’s so nice down here.  Now the horses are working on Forrest Beach, which is about six minutes away, and on our property. They can be more free-range and they’re able to walk around all day and night.  They’re certainly happy, and so are we!”

The new property is only a short distance from the Busselton track, where Feast has recorded all three of this season’s wins.

Motor On Lilly (Follow The Stars) scored back-to-back victories in the Busselton Sweetheart Series on January 5 and 12, before Motor On Jessie (Artistic Fella) chimed in with a win in the Libby Mettam Pace on Friday night (Jan 19).

Motor On Jessie was driven by Ashleigh Markham, his first win since returning to Western Australia after two seasons at Charlton, in Victoria.

Busselton, which wrapped up its annual five-meeting summer season with the Busselton Cup on Friday night, is one of the few clubs in Australia to race only under standing start conditions. The unique 656-metre track has a tight first corner and a sweeping home bend, with a 100-metre home straight.

“Busselton is a different track to everywhere else in WA, the track is so tight,” Feast said.

“We will have to get them a little bit fitter to head off elsewhere now.  Bunbury is about 40 minutes away and the other main tracks for us are one or two hours away, so we will just have to see how things pan out,” he said.

The 40-year-old is a third-generation harness racing participant whose family has been based at Byford for more than 50 years.

“My grandfather Gordon Couper built our place at Byford.  He was from a farm in the wheatbelt and the place was on two and a half acres at the trotting track,” Feast said.

“He was a trainer, breaker and farrier, so the horses were full time for him, and he and my mum Marilyn were the horsey ones,” he said.

“I was born and bred at the Byford stables and started in pony trots at about 10 years old. I suppose I always had hopes of being full time, but this is a pretty good combination now.  Mum and dad have bought a place also, about 20 minutes from us, so dad will still be able to help us out.

“There’s a lot of work still to be done, but it’s great to finally be here, in the one place.  It’s a fresh start from today.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink