Image: Racing Photography.
Toby Pracey landed the biggest win of his burgeoning training career at Dubbo on Monday, with Brogans Creek proving too classy in the $34,000 Winter Country Classic Final.
Pracey started two runners, with stablemate Feirme Prince (Kody Nestor, $5.50) going around as one of the fancied runners, but it would be Nick Heywood on Brogans Creek ($16) that would win the 1300m feature, beating the Clint Lundholm-trained Sin City Bell (Hollie Hull, $31) by a long neck, while just over a half-length away in third was the Peter Cornish-trained Choice Deel (Chelsea Ings, $61)
“It’s a thrill to win any race, but especially a good little final like that at Dubbo,” Pracey said.
“He is just a gutsy little horse, and I went there knowing he would give what he would give, and it was enough on the day.
“It’s funny because I knew he would go all right, but I thought my other horse was the horse to beat, and it didn’t turn out that way.”
It’s a big win for Pracey, who’s 40 starts and four wins into his career, and while he’s only just kicking things off, not many in the industry would boast a resume that rivalled his.
The Rylstone-based trainer has been breaking in horses professionally since he was 15 and previously worked at Muskoka Farms.
There, he spent 17 years breaking in for Star thoroughbreds, Triple Crown, Emirates Park, and many more leading trainers and syndications, educating Golden Slipper winners and countless Group 1 winners, most notably two-time Everest champion, Redzel.
“I broke in some good horses and worked with the best of the best for 17 years,” Pracey said.
“I think there were three (Golden) Slipper winners, Melbourne Cup horses, and I was quite lucky to work with and around some of the best in the industry.”
With dreams of his own, Pracey decided to set up shop with his wife Tanya and son Tommy.
It was a labour of love as they slowly built up a 10-stable Namparra Racing facility on their property, which is 40 minutes from Mudgee and close enough to other Central Districts tracks in Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo and Wellington.
“I built myself ten stables, and I have been building it up for seven years and been home for three or four years,” Pracey said.
“It got to a point where I thought, ‘I’m not getting any younger’, so it was time to get the place up and going.”
The gifted horseman never envisioned training horses and planned to work as a breaker.
“I built this place to break horses in, but it’s gone the other way around,” Pracey laughed.
“Brogans Creek is a big reason why I’m now training and not breaking.
“He was in the paddock with some other horses, and they couldn’t get rid of him, and people around the town owned him, and they said he was too small, and to be honest, he looked pretty ordinary when he first came through.
“A bloke from my feed company said to break him in and treat him like a pony; that way, if he didn’t make it, they could sell him off as a pony.
“I started on him, and I said to my mate, ‘he moves all right’, and I wasn’t training then, so they sent him to another bloke that said he was legless, and they put him back out in the paddock.”
Brogans Creek nearly didn’t make the track, with Pracey finally deciding to apply for his trainer’s licence and give the gelding one more opportunity.
“He was nearly gone; a girl was going to pick him up as a polo pony, but we thought we’d give him one more go, but I didn’t have my ticket to train, so I just started getting him ready, and I got my nephew Jake (Pracey-Holmes) to ride him and razz him up a bit, and it took a fair bit of work to get him up and going,” Pracey said.
“I was riding him one day, and I said to myself at the time, ‘I don’t know if I’ve got the fastest kangaroos in the world or the slowest horse in the world, but then he turned it around, and he started to get faster and faster.
“I got him to a point where I thought he might knock over a weak maiden at Mudgee, so I got my licence and took him to the races.”
Image: Racing Photography.
Kicking off his career in August of last year, Brogans Creek debuted with a good second at Cowra, then backed that up with a decent third at Scone, and with Pracey-Holmes in the saddle, the six-year-old came out at his third start and won a Muswellbrook maiden in October.
For a galloper nearly destined to be a polocrosse horse, he’s turned into a lovely racehorse, with the Bianconi gelding starting 19 times for three wins, bringing up subsequent victories at Mudgee and Dubbo, along with seven placings, while earning connections just shy of $90,000 in prize money.
Pracey hopes it is a sign of things to come, as he has already had another winner with Shubick, which came out of the same paddock at Brogans Creek, while Feirme Prince, which Matthew Dunn initially raced, is knocking on the door of a win.
Connections will get their chance with Feirme Prince in the 1500m Class Two Handicap at Mudgee on Sunday, with Ronald Simpson riding, while connections have drawn gate three.
For Dubbo results, click here.
For Mudgee Fields, click here.
