Winters hopes to cash in when the Dealing's Done

By Glenn Davis

There’ll be time enough for counting when the dealings done.

That line out of the famous Kenny Rogers song The Gambler could well apply to Mackay trainer Wayne Winters.

Winters has a small team of two horses in work and will be chasing more success when he heads to Mackay on Thursday with Dealing’s Done.

Dealing’s Done - a Warwick Satherley mount - steps out for his first start this year in the Benchmark 72 Handicap over 1200 metres.

A son of Better Than Ready, Dealing’s Done hasn’t race since finishing third to the Jamie McConachy-trained Universal Harmony in a 1200 metre Class 6 Handicap at Mackay on December 30.

Dealing’s Done was a $5,000 buy after he was put on the market by the John Symons and Sheila Laxon training partnership last year.

“It rained just about every day for eight months on the Sunshine Coast last year, so his previous trainers kept tipping him out,” the 72-year-old Winters said. 

“I had my eye on him for a long time while he was racing with them as he’s a full sister to Curvetta who I used to train.

“I won four races with her.

“My son, Bradley, has a share in him and races a lot of horses with Symons and Laxon and he suggested we buy him.

“It turned out to be a good decision as he won his first race for me worth $11,600 so we doubled our money straight away.”

Winters is confident of a strong first-up performance from Dealing’s Done, whose stable named is “Kenny”.

“His stable name is Kenny after Kenny Rogers and his name comes from one of his songs,” Winters said.

“He’s going well and he should be very competitive.”

Winters is hopeful Dealing’s Done can progress to the Northern Queensland Winter Racing Carnival later this year.

“I don’t think he’s up to the Rocky carnival, but I’d like to think he’s up to the Townsville and Cairns carnivals later in the year,” Winters said.

Winters started training as a 20-year-old after working in Brisbane educating young horses.

“I left school and couldn’t get out quick enough,” Winters said.

“I went to work for the late Athol Strong and then Darryl Strong in the 1970's and stayed for more than 15 years before Darryl left and moved to Tamworth.”