Gentle happy to call Queensland home

By Glenn Davis

Beaudesert trainer Brian Gentle has finally declared Queensland his home after working in the racing industry in four states.

Gentle, who celebrated his 56th birthday on Sunday, has never been afraid to travel during his career, but is now content training at Beaudesert.

Born at Orange in New South Wales, Gentle gained his trainer’s licence in Western Australia and trained his first winner at York, about a 90-minute drive from Perth.

“I worked as a foreman in Western Australia for Jon Inglis and we won the (Group 1) Oakleigh Plate in Melbourne with Singing The Blues in 1998,” Gentle said.

“I then got my trainer’s licence over there and trained my first winner at York the following year with a seven-year-old mare, who won a Class 2.”

Gentle has since been a journeyman throughout his career in racing, which has seen him also train in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

He was living on Queensland’s Gold Coast when he started working for Gerald Ryan and hoped to take over when the premier trainer at the time moved back to Sydney, but it was not to be.

So, Gentle decided to take the plunge himself and moved to Sydney.

He worked as a foreman for Sydney trainer John O’Shea for three years from 2005 and trained himself before he returned to the Gold Coast to train for five years.

He was also a pre-trainer for the late Guy Walter and Bjorn Baker in Sydney and tried his luck training at Bendigo in Victoria.

However, he gave training away and drove trucks for a living for several years at Scone in the NSW Hunter Valley.

But, like most trainers who quit, he soon got the bug to train again and returned to Queensland to rebuild his career.

After moving to Beaudesert several years ago, Gentle now has a stable of 20 on his books, including 13 in work, and is happy with his new lifestyle.

He hopes to pick up his third win of the season when he heads to his home track at Beaudesert on Thursday with a big team of horses, including Destinys Summit in the Class 4 Handicap over 1200 metres.

Destinys Summit looked to have a bright future after a hat-trick of wins as a two-year-old, including a Doomben victory over 1110 metres in July of last year.

However, the four-year-old son of Gold Standard has not won in 10 subsequent starts.

He is coming off a last-start fourth to the Jay Bellamy-trained Chayse ‘N’ Leisa in a 1540 metre Benchmark race on the Gold Coast Polytrack on August 15.

“It was his first go over 1500 metres and he didn’t like the kickback on the synthetic track,” Gentle said.

“He’s back to 1200 metres this time mainly because he spent some time in the paddock.

“They might go a bit quick for him but then again, he’s racing fresh so it might be a different story. Eventually I want to get him up to a mile.”