Beaton chasing more city success

By Glenn Davis

A total of six years working for leading trainer Robert Heathcote and a similar period in Hong Kong is paying off for rising young trainer Renita Beaton.

Beaton was 18 when she left her native New Zealand to join the Heathcote stable at a time when the Eagle Farm trainer produced Group 1 stars Buffering, Woorim and Solzhenitsyn.

“I learnt a lot working for Rob Heathcote for six years when he was at his top winning Group 1 races with Buffering and Woorim then I went to Hong Kong and rode trackwork for another six years,” Beaton said.

On her return she took out her Queensland trainer’s licence just over three years ago and prepared her first winner when Surcote was successful at Lismore in November of 2022.

Fast forward to now and Beaton has established herself as one of the rising young stars among Queensland’s training ranks.

She now has 22 horses in work at Canungra in the Gold Coast Hinterland and has trained three metropolitan Saturday winners.

Beaton is currently striking at 9.4% for the season with 11 wins and 33 placings from 118 starters.

On Wednesday, she will head to Doomben hopeful of adding another city win to her resume with Smart As Smart in the Class 5 Handicap over 1640 metres.

Smart As Smart also was an acceptor for the Benchmark 70 Handicap over 1350 metres.

A six-year-old son of Smart Missile, Smart As Smart was originally trained by Ron Quinton in Sydney before being moved on.

“Lizzie Jelfs bought him online off Ron Quinton and I trained him for a couple of wins for Lizzie,” Beaton said.

“Unfortunately, Smart As Smart was very unlucky in a few more runs last year so Lizzie decided to sell him and we bought him back for $40,000.

“Some of his previous owners have stayed in when we bought him and continue to race him.

“He’s been an unlucky horse until he won last start.”

Beaton was impressed with Smart As Smart’s last start victory in a 1350 metre Class 5 Handicap at Doomben on April 1.

“It was a good win but he’s more of a miler so hopefully he can race a bit closer in this,” she said.

Meanwhile, Beaton is looking forward to the upcoming Queensland Racing Carnival where she hopes her stable star Diamond Epic can give her first stakes win in the Listed Tatt’s Gold Crown at the back end of the carnival.

“Diamond Epic is coming along really well and won a trial at Beaudesert and is likely to return on Saturday week,” she said.

“We’re looking at the Tatt’s Gold Crown over 2100 metres with him.”