THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - GRAFTON CUP RESULT CAN PROVIDE AN INSPIRATION TO OTHERS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, July 17, 2016

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.

You don’t have to win a Group 1 on a big metropolitan stage at the height of a carnival with a high national profile to be an inspiration to others.

Enter Sally Taylor ... a twenty three year old private trainer from Coffs Harbour.

Taylor only took out her training license in February this year and when she took the five-year-old gelding Rednav from Coffs to Grafton at the start of the July Carnival ten days ago she was humble when assessing her prospect of success.

Even when Rednav won the Grafton Cup Prelude at the tasty odds of $21 with a glorious rails run on the Thursday a week out from the Cup itself Taylor’s feet stayed firmly on the ground.

Taylor’s decision to add a tongue tie to Rednav’s gear following its previous poor effort seemed to have made the difference in the Cup Prelude and Taylor was happy to stick with the positives, saying how exciting it was to have earned a place in the Grafton Cup ... the Prelude win gave Rednav automatic entry into the big race ...and how she hoped Rednav would be competitive again on the big day.

Lined up against Rednav in the Cup was a spread of runners from several large, top quality stables which included top trainer Chris Waller, trainer John O’ Shea, who trains for the mighty Godolphin operation, as well as Brisbane’s record breaking, metropolitan, champion trainer Tony Gollan.

For all of that opposition though, Rednav was to be a lot more than merely competitive on Cup day.

Unwanted in the betting at $26 (and a whole lot more on the tote) Rednav duly saluted in the Grafton Cup under another gem of a ride from Peter Graham to firmly thrust Sally Taylor into the spotlight.

Taylor maintained that calm, measured demeanour after her outstanding success.

“It is absolutely amazing. I cannot believe I am standing here right now,” Taylor said after the race. Then she immediately gave credit to the rider Peter Graham and to owner Peter Woods.

“Peter Graham was perfect for the horse and I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for Peter Woods. He encouraged me to take out my license and he kick-started my training career by giving me some fantastic horses. I owe everything to Peter.”

This modest deflection of praise was an engaging feature of Taylor’s response but it took no time at all for the praise to return to sit firmly on her shoulders.

Does that mean Taylor is now going to take the world by storm? Is she going to immediately threaten the current status quo of the Australian training ranks?

Of course not. Racing moves on at such a pace that yesterday is a memory and last week is all but forgotten.
So Taylor has a lot of work ahead if she is to maintain the pace she is setting ... but there is a lasting influence of achievements such as Taylor’s rapid rise to feature race success.

They stand as an example of where sharp focus, strong dedication and pure hard work can lead ... an inspiration if you like, giving added resolve to those with a yearning to have a go, particularly in smaller communities.

Taylor might not have realised it at the time but providing that motivation for others might have been her biggest success of all.

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