Career best day for bush trainer Toni Schofield

By Jordan Gerrans

The Schofields phones were running hot on Saturday.

Bush trainer Toni Schofield and her partner Nathan both departed Barcaldine on Saturday morning, heading in different directions, with a truckload of horses to the races.

Toni was on the road to Longreach while Nathan headed to Clermont.

Looking back on that Saturday morning, Toni says that she was hopeful of training three winners that afternoon from the nine horses they had engaged – one at Clermont and two at Longreach.

She never imagined her small stable in the Central West of the Sunshine State would record a career best occasion.

As the winners kept rolling in, Toni and Nathan would ring each other about their latest result at their individual track as there was limited access to results online or on social media.

“We just kept ringing each other to update the other one on the results,” she said with a smile. 

“We went back and forth through the day.

“And, then when he was on the way home from Clermont, I rang him and said “and, then there were six" (laughs).

“It was pretty exciting. I am still over the moon.”

In a red-letter afternoon for the stable, Schofield prepared three winners at Longreach and three at Clermont.

The half a dozen winners across two different tracks in Queensland underlines just how far the Schofield stable has come over the last few years.

Looking back on the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns, the former jockey did not even train six winners over the entire season.

Now, she can do it on one day alone.

The massive afternoon of victories was not a one-off for Schofield either.

She prepared a treble of winners at Longreach late last month and is enjoying a career best season so far.

Schofield – who rode under her maiden name of Toni Hall – was a jockey for three years in the Central West until 2004 when she got too heavy and had to walk away.

She rode 24 winners before she stepped away.

Schofield began training in Rockhampton before returning "home" to the Central West around two years ago.

The former hoop now has 11 gallopers in work at Barcaldine, managing her team of horses while also working on a full-time basis for her father's cleaning company.

Before taking out her own training licence back in the season of 2018-19, Schofield rode track work for around six years after stepping away from race riding.

Her barn has enjoyed an influx of gallopers over the last year.

And, with the strong results she has been producing, there is no doubt that more horses will be coming her way in the near future.

“My horses have doubled since September of last year,” she said.

“I have had lots more owners show interest in buying horses with the stable. It has been good.

“We had a few new horses and they won in their first few starts and that has built interest and more people are interested in buying shares in horses with us.”

Toni’s phone was running flat out with her partner on Saturday and it has been the same with other people since.

“Everyone I know has contacted me about training six winners in one day and people even I do not know have got in contact with me,” she said.