Brett Memorial race holds special significance for veteran and rookie

By Josh Spasaro

Both Holly Taylor and Tony Brett have unearthed chasers with no shortage of raw talent for the Dave Brett Memorial Final at Q1 Lakeside this Saturday night.

But, the youngster and champion veteran trainer both agree their runner cannot be slow out of the boxes.

The 19-year-old Taylor will oversee Unruly Boy jumping from the two lane in the feature for maidens and novices over 457 metres and worth $24,000.

Unruly Boy has two wins from his four starts.

“He’s a very good chance. He’s going to be a very good dog,” Taylor said.

Taylor is based at Shannon Brook which is near Casino in northern New South Wales.

“I would’ve preferred him boxed out wide, however, he’s come up with the two for the Final," Taylor said. 

“He’s a bit tardy early and he wants to push off the track a bit. But, hopefully he gets the room to do so.”

By Group 1-winner Jungle Deuce and out of northern NSW bitch Magical Mia, who won eight from 42 races, Unruly Boy is aptly named.

“He got his name Unruly Boy because he’s unruly. He’s always the naughtiest of the litter,” Taylor said.

“He’s 39kg and he’s a bull at a gate. He’s just starting to settle down and mature and he’s a beautiful dog to have around.”

Unruly Boy won his heat in 25.52 seconds last Saturday, saluting by a comfortable four-and-a-half lengths.

Got This Girls crossed the line in the same time, winning by three-and-a-quarter lengths for Brett.

The two-year-old bitch, with two wins from three starts, will begin from box five, but the champion Grandchester conditioner has done a lot of work trying to correct her box manners.

“She plays up in the boxes and she missed the start in the heats last week by probably a length-and-a-half,” Brett said.

“But, she accelerates really quickly and she can run, there’s no doubt about it. She’s drawn the five this week, which is going to be tough because it’s a really good little field.”

Both Taylor and Brett were also in agreement that winning the Dave Brett Memorial Final would mean a lot to them.

Brett is the son of the late top conditioner.

“He (Dave Brett) was very well respected in the game. For me, it’s always an honour,” Brett said.

“We haven’t had dogs at that stage to target it for a fair while, actually. So, this year it’s nice to have her and have her going well.

“I bred her and she’s got a great group of owners. It ticks a lot of boxes and it’d be very humbling if we could win it.”

Taylor said winning such a sought-after event would be an enormous thrill in this early part of her training career, as she strives to one day win a Group race.

“It’s a very prestigious race. It’s not about the money, it’s just about the prestige of the race,” the rising young conditioner said.

Taylor has held her training licence for one-and-a-half years.

“It’d mean a lot to win a race like that, which is held so highly in so many people’s hearts," Taylor said. 

“It’s my dream to win a Group race. It’d be a dream come true if that ever happened. Even just to make a Group race.”

While Brett was happy with the time Got This Girls ran in her heat, he said the Final contained a strong field, with all capable of producing similar efforts this Saturday.

Hara’s Frankie for Jemma Daley ran the fastest heat time of 25.42 seconds.

“There are six or seven in the field who ran good times and that’s the thing with Dad’s memorial,” Brett said.

“There are always some really nice dogs coming out of it who can go on to do bigger and better things.

“I think you’ll be seeing these dogs in all the age races coming up in the next six months. I reckon there’ll be some nice dogs who will develop.”

Brett guided Charmaine Roberts’ two-year-old bitch Sooty Keeping to glory in the $225,005 Flying Amy Classic Final on June 7, before overseeing Cumbria Jack’s victory in the National Sprint Championship Final on August 30.

He believes Got This Girls – by Bernardo and out of Wolf Steele, who he trained – can progress and give him more success in the future.

“We breed them, so it’s nice to see them doing well,” he said.

“There’s one out of the litter who hasn’t started, but every one of the seven who have raced have won races and shown promise.

“I’ve got another two at home and they have the Wolf prefix in their names. They’re pretty smart little pups, as well. But, they’re only young and kicking off and hopefully they can go on to some nicer races.”

Meanwhile, Taylor said Unruly Boy was the pick of her litter.

“He’s always had ability. He’s always been the best in the litter,” she said.

“His run-home times have been above and beyond.

“He’s a very fast dog when he gets wound up. When he gets left alone, it’d be scary to see what he could run."

Brett said Q1 Lakeside was the perfect venue to honour his father who was a highly respected trainer in Mackay before making a major impact on South East Queensland metropolitan racing through the 1980s and ‘90s.

“I had to book tables for Saturday night to bring some people for Dad’s race because upstairs on Saturday night it’s nearly completely booked out for most weeks,” he said.

“It’s so exciting. It’s just really good and it’s good to be able to invite people to somewhere that you’re proud of.

“You’ve got a place that’s really nice. You’re happy to sit there and the food’s good and the tracks are just awesome. When Dad bought this property (just outside of Grandchester), I was 21 years old and I was 55 the other day, so that was over 30 years ago.

“If you could’ve picked a perfect place and if you could’ve foreseen that they were going to build a track where they did, it could not have been better.

“For me to drive just half-an-hour to trial and half-an-hour to go racing, it’s just made life so much easier.”