By Glenn Davis
Caloundra trainer Tom Button is hoping Away Game’s Magic Millions Classic triumph will prove a strong pointer for a breakthrough city win at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Button, 40, moved from Rockhampton to the Sunshine Coast last year and is still looking for his first metropolitan win.
A former star apprentice in central Queensland, Button has six runners at Eagle Farm including Miss Lot Won and Goodbye Earl in the QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap (1000m).
Button has been training for nine years and won the Rockhampton trainers’ premiership five times before moving south.
“I just felt the time was right for a new challenge and decided to move to Caloundra last year,” Button said.
“I had accomplished as much as I could in Rocky after winning the last five trainers’ premierships and I came down here with 18 horses.
“It’s been a bit harder to win races here but I’m happy the way things are going.
“I’ve won about 10 races since moving and I’ve now got 25 in work.”
Button may not have won a metropolitan race yet but he’s confident Miss Lot Won can do the job.
The daughter of Sidereus has started five times for one win and three placings while stablemate Goodbye Earl finished fourth in his debut at Warwick last Saturday.
Miss Lot Won had her first two starts in Brisbane finishing fourth and third at Eagle Farm in October before she returned to Rockhampton to easily win a maiden in November.
Miss Lot Won then produced a strong performance to finish second to the Rob Heathcote-trained Dusty Tycoon at Doomben on November 30 before a game third to Away Game in the Listed Calaway Gal Stakes at Doomben in mid-December.
“Her run behind Away Game was very good and she looked the winner on the home turn,” Button said.
“The form around her is very good and I thought Away Game’s win in the Magic Millions was very dominant.
“This is a nice race for her and hopefully she can be my first city winner.
“I’ve put blinkers on Goodbye Earl which hopefully will improve him after he raced greenly at Warwick.”
Miss Lot Won is a half-sister to Button’s stable star, four-year-old Gypsy Toff who has won eight of her 18 starts and more than $212,000 in prizemoney.
“I got both of them out of the Capricornia Yearling Sales and if Miss Lot Won can win, she’ll return to Rockhampton for the big Capricornia Yearling Sale race in April,” he said.
Racing Queensland webnews January 15