Peter Hibberd, The Buloke Times

The term ‘Aussie battler’ certainly applies to harness racing trainer Paul Castle, who, after ten years, had his first ever winner as a trainer. The following is a story on Paul and his horse, Lucky. My thanks to Terry and Jacinta Gange for their input.

Victorian harness racing hobby trainer, Paul Castle, and his wife, Fiona, didn’t hold back their emotions when ten-year-old gelding Touchandgo (Down Under Muscles) got the money at his 49th race attempt.

The victory at the Wedderburn Cup meeting, hosted by the Maryborough Club last Sunday (January 28), had added significance, as it was the first training success for Castle, of Swan Marsh, 20 minutes from Colac.

“Yes, we were pretty excited as they came up the home straight to the finish line, and I can say that Fiona is still up in the clouds,” Castle said.

“It certainly was a great thrill, but for me it was probably more relief. The horse should have won before this, but he’d play up and let us down by galloping. He’s certainly been around the blocks.”

Touchandgo was driven a superb race by Ballarat youngster Brent Murphy, who kept a cool head in running down the leader, Te Kuiti Kitty (Jason Ainsworth) by 1.1 metres, with Yoshida (Neil McCallum) a further 28 metres down the track in third spot.

“There was a bit happening out there and I thought Brent did a super job,” Castle said. “He’s a good young bloke who has improved out of sight, and he’s learnt that if he keeps the bit in the horse’s mouth, he’ll keep trying and do his best.”

The Castles, who are dairy farmers, bred Touchandgo with good friends Russell and Helen McCann, who are retired from dairying and live nearby at Cobden.

“In the winter, our training track gets flooded, and we’ve got to run them through the water and then fastwork in at Terang – which is 60 km away – so I did give Touchandgo a fair break last year from April to August,” Castle said.

It’s been a long and patient wait for connections, who purchased the dam Honeylyptus (My Handsome Fella) at a sale.

“We took her and another mare up to get served,” Castle said. “Later, we were told one had got in foal, but the other (Honeylyptus) had internal complications and had no hope of foaling. So Russell agreed to take her home to his place.

“A good few months later, he said to me that she was looking bigger, and I’d better have a look. So I did, and took her home because she was in foal. The night Touchandgo was born, I checked on them at midnight and then woke up again an hour later and the mare was on the ground. I’ve had a lot of experience with cows and calves, but I haven’t had much with horses, and I remember he was a white colour and it didn’t look good.

“We gave him the stable nickname of ‘Lucky’ because he was lucky to be conceived – and then lucky to be alive!”

Fiona said the horse was quite small as a foal and didn’t grow until he was four years old.

“He was always jumping barbed wire fences and getting out of his paddock,” she said. “I remember one day when he was little and I was hanging out some washing; he wanted to get closer to see me, and just went up and over a fence! We thought he might make a show-jumper, but he’s become my pet.”

Castle said there was no rush to get “Lucky” to the races, as Russell and Helen were happy with what Paul and Fiona decided. So after being left to grow, Touchandgo finally made his race debut on June 10, 2020, at the age of seven.

“I will say that it took a good couple of starts for the penny to drop with him, because we only train one or two at a time,” Castle said.

“I gave up cricket and footy a long time ago, and harness racing is a great sport. You don’t make money out of it, but you do make a lot of friends.

“There’s lots of guys around here who can help out, like Barry Beasley, Johnny Meade, and others. I do all my own shoeing and had a good teacher years ago in Keith Toulmin.”

Castle said he got involved in the sport back in the 1980s as a punter.

“Russell and I were old football teammates at South Purrumbete, which folded in the mid-1990s, but a guy by the name of Ken Howard was on the committee, and he was involved with some punting stables.

“We did a lot of miles travelling to meetings and we got to know a very good horseman in Tom Ezard, who lived not far away at Scott’s Creek. He had some Cups winning horses in Grando Boy and Grecian Star.”

After getting involved as owners and placing their horses with other trainers, Castle decided about ten years ago to get his own trainer’s licence.

“We’re not big dairy farmers, milking about 80 cows, but it gives us time to spend with one or two horses,” he said.

Wedderburn Cups

Last Sunday at Maryborough, the Wedderburn club celebrated the running of its two feature races.

The pacing cup was won by Earl of Pembroke, driven by Jack Laugher for the Julie Douglas stable. Runner-up was Ubetcha Tigerpie and in third placing was Platinum Stride for the Sanderson stable.

The trotters cup was won by Grumpee, driven by Chris Alford. It defeated Baltica and Majestic Belle.

Over many years of doing this column, now and again you see a potentially very good horse. Last Sunday, a horse by the name of Clymenus certainly took my eye. Formerly from New Zealand, Clymenus has raced in “Oz” on three occasions for two wins. This horse is trained by the Douglas stable.

Charlton is set to run next Monday. At the time of writing, with plenty of nominations, an 8-race program is set to proceed.

This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 2 February 2024.