Reinswoman Tamara ready to do battle

By Jordan Gerrans

Reinswoman Tamara Battle will have her two biggest fans to cheer her on at the races when she enters the Queensland driving ranks next week. 

The wife of local trainer Ben Battle has been working through her needed trials to be approved to drive in races in recent months and was ticked off by stewards on Tuesday of this week. 

The 32-year-old is likely to have her maiden race drives next week with horses she is set to partner to be nominated for the upcoming Wednesday and Thursday meetings. 

The mother-of-two is a somewhat latecomer to the harness racing game on a full-time basis after being employed in the construction industry before welcoming her sons into the world. 

Young Bailey and Cooper keep the Battle stable busy away from the horses. 

At three years of age, Bailey is already keen on the pacers and has had a close eye on his mother’s trial results as she edges closer to her debut appearances. 

“He loves it,” Tamara said of her oldest son. 

“He gets very cranky when I do not win, even if it’s a trial (laughs).

“He absolutely loves it and comes to the races all the time with us. He loves it all and the horses.”

The Battle barn was one of the rising teams in the Sunshine State over the last three seasons, preparing more than 45 winners in each campaign. 

The 2025 term has been a slower season for winners and strike-rate but as Tamara notes, she believes it will soon return to an upwards trajectory. 

With Tamara recently welcoming Cooper into the world and Ben focusing on a young crop of horses, they are hopeful the wheel will soon turn back in their favour. 

“We will have young ones rolling through all the time now,” she said.

“This season has been our biggest season with the two-year-olds, normally we will have just have one or two coming through our stables, but I think we had 16 this year all up.

“We have a couple getting ready for the Triad races soon.

“We have not been at the races as much with our two boys at home, as well.”

The stable tasted arguably their greatest success in sport late last year when Toro Loco claimed the inaugural Sunshine Stars Yearling Sale Classic for the two-year-old boys. 

Despite not winning since that occasion, Toro Loco has been a model of consistency and has placed seven times from 10 attempts.

The keen horsewoman says she has a mixture of nerves and excitement ahead of her maiden day at the races as a driver. 

She is likely to partner with stable favourites Zach Lowe and Miss Serendipity over the coming week. 

In 2019, the Battles shifted from New South Wales to Mutdapilly to set-up their racing stable.

Tamara’s hands on involvement with the team has gradually risen over the years after she stepped away from the construction industry. 

“I would always help Ben in the afternoon and on weekends, so I was only ever driving trackwork then – which was not very often,” she said.

“With the confidence side of it, since I have had my boys, I drive five or so every morning now and work with the baby horses.

"Confidence has come with that ahead of going to the races.

“The more you do it every day, the more confident you get and the better you get at it for the split-second decisions. 

“My trials have been going pretty well so I think I am going into it pretty positive.

“With the couple of Kiwis we have, using the five-point claim is pretty beneficial when they get high up in grade.”

The stable has prepared two winners over the last week or so with Jive Master landing the prize at Redcliffe while Longshot was a Marburg victor.

Ironically, Longshot was the favourite in the market in his win.