Training proves to be just the ticket for owner

A decision to try his hand at training 12 months ago is paying off for long-time harness racing owner Gary Murnane.

Numbers were building up in the Murnane breeding barn at Creswick, and, after semi-retiring, he said taking out a trainer’s ticket made sense.

He has been quietly going about building his knowledge – and his winners – ever since with his first winner in July last year, and three wins and eight placings from 36 starts in his debut season. Already in season 2023 he’s had five wins and six placings, not to mention his first ever training double at Maryborough (Mar 27).

“It was either get my licence, sell the horses or send them all to a trainer.  The cost of training for six horses was just too much and I can never even bring myself to sell the yearlings that we breed, that’s my problem!  So there was really only one choice,” he said.

“We have 30 acres at Creswick but it’s hilly, so it’s really just for our broodmares. We bought a 25-acre paddock at Miner’s Rest, which is about nine kilometres away, so I put a track on that and have just kept on putting in what I need.”

Murnane said he’d grown up in and around harness racing, with a brother and uncle both trainers.  He dabbled with friends in thoroughbred ownership before taking the plunge into harness racing as an owner in the early 2000s.

“We bought a couple of fillies from New Zealand to race and then breed from and practically all of the horses we have now go back to those first two,” he said.

“One of the first two we bought was Beris Holmes (Holmes Hanover) who won seven races, and the first foal we got from her was Berisari (Safari).”

Berisari, trained by Emma Stewart, was a 4yo Mare of the Year and a winner of 21 from 63 starts. She amassed $377,000 in stakes for Gary and his wife Vicki during a career in which she was also runner-up in numerous Group One features.

“I thought ‘how easy is this?’ when we bred Berisari first up. But it doesn’t quite work that way though as we all know – I think Berisari’s still paying for all the ones who’ve come since!” he laughed.

The other of the original NZ purchases was Tara Toplady (Bettors Delight) who went on to win 17 races from 93 starts – and is the other foundation mare for the Murnanes’ breeding interests.

Both legs of Gary’s Maryborough double were related to the original two fillies – Top Gun Ted (Safari) is out of Tara Top Lady while Senna Storm (Safari) is out of an unraced half-sister to Berisari, Beried Alive (Live Or Die).

Gary said as his horse numbers built up and as he had more time available, taking out his own trainer’s licence became more appealing.

“I was a greyhound trainer for a while back in the day – without much success I must admit! But I’d been a strapper and helped other people with training some of our horses in the past, and Emma Stewart’s mum is my cousin, so I had a bit of an idea what I was getting into,” he said.

“But when you are starting out, you don’t know whether you are doing the right thing or not.  You just try things and change some things as you go and that’s what I’ve done.  I’ve put heavier sand on my track because it used to be quite firm, and I really think that’s helped with join issues over the past four months.

“And I’ve got good help.  I’ve got a few health issues, and my son Michael is working the horses with me full time now.  I’ve also got a terrific farrier Alan Hanrahan who trains a galloper or two himself, but has been fantastic in getting some issues sorted in our team.

“We’ve got six in work – four racing but two more not far away.  I feel like we haven’t got one in the team at the moment that won’t win a race and I’m just really enjoying the sport.  They’re paying the bills and hopefully one or two of them can get to Melton where you can get some decent stakemoney to keep things ticking along.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink