Hometown debut drive for Cassandra O’Brien

Cassandra O’Brien’s name is usually found in the racebook as a trainer, but the 29-year-old is set to make her debut as a harness racing driver at Mildura on Friday night when she partners Hawaiianbeach (Somebeachsomewhere).

The Sunraysia local is going to have to put her anxious nerves aside ahead of her debut in the sulky.

“I’m very nervous, but I have had a lot of people message me and tell me, I will be fine,” O’Brien said. “It is very reassuring the support that I have had.

“I have told mum to have a few drinks to calm down.”

The winner of 16-races as a trainer, has always had a feeling that making the leap to driving would be on the agenda at some point.

“When I first got my stable hand licence and I drove my first fast work – I always said down the track I would love to become a driver,” she said.” Just to drive the few horses that I have got, let’s just apply and see what happens.

“Doing my trial drives and doing some stuff at Broken Hill, I could see this is something I could do on the side of my nursing.

“I’m in my final six months of my nursing bachelor’s degree. The horses are my serenity.”

O’Brien won’t let the anticipation of her first drive get in the way of her debut race day outing.

“I am actually on placement for my degree (Friday), so I don’t finish till 3pm anyway. I will be stressing out all day and mum will have all the horses ready to go, “she said. “All I have to do is turn up.”

The budding nurse can find similarities between driving and nursing.

“They both have problems and working out how to fix it. You have to use your logical thinking a lot with both of them,” she said.

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by Lachlan Mitchell, for Harness Racing Victoria