Ace Lombo plays a sweet tune for Letton

By Jordan Gerrans

Renowned musician and horseman Brian Letton will not be singing for his supper any time soon after pacer Ace Lombo broke a long drought for his stable on the grass at Warwick on Sunday.

The 68-year-old Letton is based at Thanes Creek which is just west of Warwick on the Southern Downs of Queensland.

Letton has been a long-time trainer and driver in the harness code as well as dabbling in his musical interests as a singer and songwriter.

He is prominent on the Australian country music circuit, regularly featuring amongst the nominations in the Golden Guitar Awards and has received an array of other awards throughout his career.

Ace Lombo’s triumph in the last event from Warwick on Sunday was Letton’s first winner in a race since the 2012-13 term.

Letton’s number of starters in a race every season has declined over the last decade as he has focussed more so on his music for a ‘day job’ and his ‘hobby’ of the pacers have been forced to take a back seat.

“I can't imagine not having horses in the backyard as that’s the way it has been all my life,” Letton said.

The Darling Downs club hosted the meeting on the grass at Warwick on Sunday.

Letton was not able to be at the track for the occasion with gig commitments but admits he has watched the replay of his gelding’s victory numerous times in the days since.

“The big track suited him on Sunday, the big straight and the wide, swinging bends,” Letton said.

“I was pretty stoked with the win. He has always had the ability and has run a couple of big races at times.

“It has just been a matter of him putting it all together and doing it at the right time.

“There was a couple of good horses in that field and I did not expect him to win it at his best but he proved us all wrong. I think there might be a few more wins in him.”

To make the victory even sweeter, Letton is in the ownership of the five-year-old gelding.

The son of Sunshine Beach has only been in Letton’s care since May of this year after previously being prepared in NSW before a stint with the Chantal Turpin barn in South East Queensland.

“I have had the horse a little while and he has had his issues along the way,” the trainer said.

“I think we are getting on top of those. He is a lovely horse to have around the place, he is a real gentleman.”

Ace Lombo started 13 times for Letton before breaking through on Sunday.

The pacer had gone close on a couple of occasions at Redcliffe but it was fitting the gelding finally got the chocolates at a track not far from where the stable is based.

Letton will usually drive his own horses but when he cannot be at the track, he often gives the job to fellow Warwick horseman Dayl March.

With March already having an engagement in Sunday’s 1950 metre contest, the trainer called upon emerging youngster Paige Bevan.

Bevan and Ace Lombo began brilliantly from the four starting position and were able to land a forward position.

The 22-year-old Bevan skipped past the leaders in the home straight and scored by three metres.

“I thought she drove a great race on him,” Letton said of Bevan.

“Dayl would usually drive him but he had another one in the race. Dayl suggested Paige and it worked out well.

“I was very happy with the job she did.”

Letton is about to enter a period of the year where his music commitments slow down and he will be able to focus on the horses more so until the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January.

The Tamworth Country Music Festival runs alongside the Tamworth harness clubs ‘Carnival of Cups’ and that is where Letton is hopeful of taking Ace Lombo.

“We might freshen ‘Lombo’ up a bit and I would love to take him down to Tamworth for the carnival and festival,” he said.

“He might not make it to the feature races but he could go into the lead-up races.

“He has been stabled and worked on the Tamworth track for a period of time and he seemed to get around it ok.”

The Tamworth harness carnival has been a popular destination for Queensland trainers in recent years with Ryan Veivers and Graham Dwyer, among others, regular visitors.

Letton is a farrier by trade and has been in the harness game since he was a teenager.

He drove in regional Western Australia as a youngster before spending around 30 years training out of Tamworth and has more recently moved to the Sunshine State.