Ex nomads find home at the end of the road

Former New South Wales harness racing couple Gary and Ros Payne saw most of Australia in their life on the road, but say choosing to put down roots again in Northern Victoria is the best decision they could have made.

The Paynes, formerly based at Bargo, 100 kilometres south west of Sydney, have always had a few horses in work, but about 12 years ago, they decided to take a break and hit the road with their caravan.

“We’d been on the road two years, and we’d started looking around for somewhere to buy with enough land to put a trotting track on,” Ros said.

“We spent some time in Tassie having a look because we really thought we were planning to move there. But we’d come back to the mainland and were at Horsham when this property came up at Kyabram,” she said.

“We rolled up for a look on the Friday, then bought it at the auction on the Saturday! We didn’t muck around,” she laughed.

Gary and Ros now work a team of about six, including the handy El Boston (Union Guy – Flip Miss (Exotic Earl), an impressive winner at Charlton on Monday.

Driven by Chris Alford, El Boston was having only his third run back from a spell and signalled there might be more to come, sitting three-wide for the last lap and scoring by 14 metres clocking 1:55.0.

“He’s always had the ability, but it does sometimes depend on his mood,” Payne said.

“You’ve got to get the run to suit, but everything panned out today and he was obviously in the mood because he went terrific,” he said.

Owned by Peter Batten, El Boston’s win was also a sentimental one for the connections.

“Peter’s partner Dawn passed away just a few weeks ago after a long illness, so we were pleased to be able to get the win for him,” Ros said.

“Peter and Dawn owned all of our race horses at the moment and we’ve leased horses from them over the years – Peter’s been terrific to us since we have been in Victoria,” she said.

Although he doesn’t have family history in harness racing, Gary found himself in the sport because of his interest in horses generally.

“I had six or eight riding horses from the time I was about 12. I’d do everything with them, including shoeing them,” he said.

“The taxi driver next door John Lafoe used to take me to school, and he had some trotters, which of course got my interest. They were a bit flighty, one or two of them, and some days he wouldn’t be able to get in the cart quick enough – one would come past my place with no one in the seat, so I’d have to get after it on my riding horse and catch it!” he said.

“I actually got my first winner as a driver for John when I was 16. It was a horse called Foggy Peak and it won at Bulli at 33/1 and it was my second-ever drive.”

As a teenager, Gary began work at the prestigious standardbred establishment Carlton Stud, at nearby Tahmoor.

Carlton stud, established by Bill Wise, was an industry pioneer, importing stallions Stormyway and Raider Frost from the USA as early as the 1960s, and, most notably, was the base for world champion pacer and leading stallion Overtrick from 1975.

“I started working at Carlton when I was 16 and my first job was to help get yearlings ready for the sales.

I did that one season, then just stayed on for the next five years,” Gary said.

“I was studmaster there for a while. It was a huge operation with five stallions at stud most seasons and around 450 broodmares. They were also the first stud in Australia to start artificial insemination for standardbreds,” he said.

After moving on from Carlton Stud, Gary worked in the mines, and as a farrier, but always had a horse or two in work.

“I retired from the mines to concentrate on the horses and farrier work, and at one stage, I was shoeing around 30 a week. The older you get, though, the tougher it gets. I still keep my hand in, though and do some locally.”

Ros said after so long on the road, when the couple settled at Kyabram, they couldn’t wait to get back into racing.

“We had to put in a track and we built some stables, but this place and the community were just what we were looking for,” she said.

“We’d hardly moved in when the Kyabram trotting club president and secretary came down and introduced themselves and asked us to a function. It’s a really warm community and we love it. Some things are just meant to be!”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink