Butlers head back home to Tassie and taste success

Newly minted Victorians Kristy and Marc Butler have hit the ground running since moving from Tasmania to their new harness racing home-base at Kyabram, in the northeast of the State.

The husband-and-wife team made the move with their son Oli for a better work-life balance, along with more racing options and opportunities for their stables but returned to the Apple Isle with two runners at the weekend.

“It was our first trip back and Vinni The Gangster (Vincent) went as a travel companion for Cuzzy Bro, who was going down for the prelude of the Gr 3 Globe Derby in a couple of weeks. But Vinni turned out to be the star on debut,” Kristy laughed.

“We bought him as a yearling and syndicated him out, but he’s been a bit of a nightmare for the group to be honest because he’s taken time and been a bit difficult to get going,” she said.

“But at Launceston he picked up a Tasbred bonus and a Tas Sales bonus, around $15,000 in bonuses, as well as the stakes, so he did a good job.  He raced greenly and still got the job done (with a nine-metre victory), so I think it showed that when he does things properly, he will be a very nice horse for the syndicate.”

Butler said the horses are currently at Chester Bullock’s stables at Riverside and will remain in Tasmania ahead of Cuzzy Bro contesting the Globe Derby feature.

“He was below par on Sunday (45-metre eighth) but I think he might have had a bit of travel sickness perhaps,” Kristy said.

“It’s a tough trip for the horses. They are on the boat for 12 hours and they got there on Thursday, and he raced on Sunday.  It was a ‘not like him’ performance so we’ve taken some bloods and we’ve got two weeks to get him right,” she said.

“Vinni The Gangster will stay on and contest the Golden Slipper, which is a $20,000 two-year-old feature for Tasmanian trained or Tasbred horses only, on the same night as the Globe Derby. Sam Freeman and Brooke Hammond are looking after them, and Marc will fly back there again at the end of the week.”

Kristy said the past few months had been frantically busy as the couple prepared for the move to Victoria and established themselves at their new property.

“We’re definitely looking forward to things settling down a bit, and having a bit more family time,” Kristy said.

“Back in Tassie, we always had around 30 horses on the property and around 20 to 25 in work including a lot of young horses. It was just the two of us and I have an equine therapy business as well, so it was pretty full on,” she said.

“The equine therapy side of things takes me back to Tassie for eight days every six to eight weeks, but it’s starting to pick up now here in Victoria as well.

“Here we’re working nine horses, including the two that are over in Tassie, and we want to stick around that 10-12 mark, hopefully focusing a bit more on pre-trainers and educators, rather than so many racehorses.

“Right now, we’re really happy with how everything’s working out – we’re settled into our new place, Oli has started kinder and it’s nice to get those wins back in Tassie. But I think in future it’ll just be sending Tasbred horses back to get their bonuses. I am definitely looking forward to having things slow down just a bit!”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink