THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - TEAMWORK THAT IS WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD

By Graham Potter | Sunday, December 21, 2014

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

A Sunshine Coast based team is currently carving a confident, eye-catching path in the ultra-competitive world of horse-racing.

Luke Tarrant is the front man of the trio.

Although still an apprentice jockey, Tarrant’s exploits this season have placed him comfortably at the top of the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership.

He already has four winners at a Saturday metropolitan meeting to his credit and in the last two weeks he added two other notable achievements to his resume, winning his first Listed race before going on to claim his first Group race success in the Group 2 Villiers.

Both wins came aboard the Helen Page trained Rudy.

The Villiers was also Tarrant’s first win in Sydney.

Each time the bar is raised it seems Tarrant clears it with ease, but there is something of an illusion in that view.

You see Tarrant is not alone. There are two other people in the team helping him clear every hurdle.

While his undeniable talent and ambition are obvious important factors in his advancement, Tarrant, in his own words, would not be where he is today without the on-going mentoring and support of Frank and Melanie Phillips.

Tarrant is indentured to Phillips who runs a stable at the Sunshine Coast.

“I dedicate everything I’ve achieved so far to Frank and Melanie,” Tarrant said.

“From the very beginning Frank was there at almost every meeting. He would go through race films with me. He would drill me when I was doing something wrong … it was bad at the time, but still good that he was helping me.

“If Frank saw something good he would really praise me and that got me motivated. I guess the biggest thing for me at the time was trying to impress him.

"It was a definite aim for me early on … but he is a hard man to impress. That meant I had to work at it and I did … and every time I impressed him it felt like an accomplishment in itself.

“That motivation has made me the jockey I am today. I know you can set goals and achieve them with hard work.

“That story shows how much I respect Frank. I just have an enormous amount of respect for him.

“He’s like a dad to me and I know I’m like a son to him.
“Frank and Melanie took me in and I lived with them for two years or so. Both he and Melanie treated me like one of their own since I got there.

“I ride work for Frank every morning and I’ll ride work for him as long as he needs me. He is one of the greatest guys I know. I can’t put it any better than that.

“And Melanie … I have to give her a big shout out as well.

“Melanie has been enormous for me. She manages me. She does all my rides and she works incredibly hard on my behalf.

“I think our results show just what a great job she is doing.

“I just can’t thank her enough.”

Application and appreciation is a good mix.

Now we know why the young man is doing so well!

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