He’s a star on and off the track

Striking five-year-old gelding Spencer (Courage Under Fire) is stealing the show in more ways than one for Victorian harness racing couple Brett and Janelle Bunfield.

The pacer scooped two top awards at the Highgain Tatura Dressage Series Show on Saturday (Aug 13) and late the following afternoon, headed off to compete in a race at Swan Hill and “got the chocolates”.

“Janelle doesn’t do any race driving these days and gets a kick out of taking the horse to the shows—which he mostly wins or gets the runners-up award,” Brett said.

“Then it’s my turn and off to the races we go. And we’ve been going okay with a second at Yarra Valley and now a Swan Hill win after returning from a 12-month spell,” he said.

Needless-to-say, the beautifully conditioned Spencer is a strong advertisement for the Bunfields’ Harkaway Lodge water walker facility, in which horses walk in a circular pool in about a metre of water to stimulate conditioning.

Spencer was purchased by the late Gavin Lang as a yearling but broke down with tendon issues as a two-year-old. After being transferred to the Bunfield stables, he made his race debut at Swan Hill on Dec 20, 2020, with a fourth and 10 days later followed up with a Kilmore third.

“The horse cracked a tendon at his second start, so he was out for 18 months. When we got him back up again last year he won three races at Shepparton from nine starts,” Brett said.

“But then he did his second tendon, so he was off the scene for another 12 months. The horse perhaps had six weeks out and spent the rest of the time in the water walker—and happily I can say that his legs look sound at the moment.

“Young Jordan (Chibnall) has looked after him well at the races and we’ll leave her on. I haven’t decided where his next start will be, but perhaps Cobram or Shepparton.”

The Bunfields have been at Merrigum for 15 years and took a gamble four years ago to put in a water walker at their Harkaway Lodge complex, near Shepparton.

“It’s probably not just for those with leg or other problems like Spencer, we get a lot that are sent over for a freshen-up from the constant rigors of trackwork,” Brett said.

“They can have 20 minutes in the water and then be put out in paddocks for the rest of the day. Nearly all of them take to it pretty well and I’m a big believer that it also helps mentally,” he said.

“It definitely holds their fitness when they are sent over race fit. Alternatively, it’s another way to bring horses up when they are getting set for a campaign.

“We get the lot from standardbreds, thoroughbreds, show horses and quarter horses. Some are here for 10 days while a lot of pre-trainers can stay for up to six weeks.”

Brett said horses were all he wanted to do, despite not really having family ties in harness racing.

“After I left school, I went everywhere and worked at a stud in Parkes. Then ended up in Sydney, Canberra and had six months in the USA in 1998 in New Jersey. I worked with ex-Kiwi Peter Simpson and got to know Nifty Norman, Brett Pelling and Anthony Butt.

“I went to the Little Brown Jug at Delaware and Pelling won everything, including the Jug and Jugette. I was sitting around having a few drinks afterwards near the horses and a lady came up and said she’d backed one of our winners. She wanted me to sign her racebook—it will probably be the only autograph I ever sign in my life!”