Marrissa makes her mark

Young Queensland harness racing trainer Marrissa Jones hasn't wasted much time in landing her first winner after only being licensed for a short time.

"It still hasn't sunk in yet. And I can't believe I haven't even celebrated because I've been too tired," Jones said.

Six-year-old journeyman pacer Callmedemaro (Stonebridge Regal-Cherwood (Riverboat King) scored an all-the-way win at Brisbane's Albion Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The gelding, who started his career in Victoria, before border-hopping to South Australia, and then up to Queensland last October, is raced by 22 year old Jones and her partner Lucas Anticevic. The successful reinsman was Nathan Dawson.

"He'd got close a few times with a couple of second placings and a third. We were so proud of him when he won because he got challenged a bit, but stayed strong," an elated Jones said.

"He's actually improved out of sight. We are going to have a lot of fun with him because he's so easy to do anything with," she said.

"I work for (well-known trainer-driver) Graham Dwyer who has been terrific in teaching me all about the sport. And I've had John Cremin as well as Nathan doing my driving, so I'm learning a lot along the way."

Jones, from Park Ridge South, half an hour from Brisbane, first got involved with horses about seven or eight years ago.

She said her family were not "real horsey people", but she and her sister Brittany always loved them.

"Our parents lived at Greenbank and had a few spelling there. Somehow, I became interested in trying to re-train them. Brittany would help me, and we'd get on their backs, they'd throw us off and we'd get back on again!" she said

"That was the way we learnt to ride. It was hard going at times, but we stuck at it and fortunately I don't think either of us got any real injuries."

Jones later got a stablehand job for 12 months with recognized square-gaiter trainer Peter Carson, of Nowra and enjoyed every minute of it.

"I remember I talked Peter into letting me ride a couple of his horses on long trail rides rather than constant trackwork in the sulky. It was just to try and mix up the normal routine. Anyway, the horses thrived and when we took the first one to the races, he won," she said.

"When I shifted back to Queensland, I worked at other jobs to save some money. But the last few years I've pumped a lot into re-training standardbreds. There's a big need for a facility to cater for horses at the end of their racing careers.

"I've probably broken more than 20 horses into saddle. I keep in touch with all the people who have taken them. I always seem to have one or two that I'm re-training.

"Most of them quickly learn that you want them to canter. It's more about getting them balanced and calming them. Now a lot of standardbred trainers canter or gallop their horses during trackwork anyway."

Jones said she spent about eight weeks re-training her most recent candidate.

"I'm actually far more confident riding than driving them-it still feels so unnatural with the driving part, but I'm getting better," she said.

"My partner Lucas didn't want anything to do with horses when we got together about two years ago. Now he loves them-he's all over it. He keeps asking me when are we going to get another one!

"But I think part of our success is because we are still learning, it's best to just focus on one horse. Maybe later we could look at owning more and trying to get our own place."

Jones said the couple were finding horses to be very time-consuming.

"Lucas says we don't now go camping as much as we did-but we'll learn to juggle things around."

In the meantime, the couple is having fun cheering on their stable star Callmedemaro.

Terry Gange

NewsAlert PR Mildura