By Jonny Turner
Kyle Cameron took a chance on Brett’s Mate and it paid off again at Addington on Sunday.
The usually consistent trotter put a last-start mishap behind him with a faultless display to win race 7 for the trainer-driver.
Cameron was offered Brett’s Mate as a young horse to train and race with breeder-owner John Allan and he took a chance on the trotter which is now paying off.
“John offered me the horse and I didn’t have too many trotters at the time,” Cameron said.
“I had seen his mother Eyrewell Pegasus go around plenty of times and she was a pretty handy mare for Pete (Davis) and Margo (Nyhan).”
“So I thought I would give him a go.”
“He has always been a big, weak horse but he has kept improving with time.”
“We qualified him as a three-year-old and put him out and he has come back in and done a good job.”
Brett’s Mate would have a perfect copybook had it not been for a gallop in a recent Winter Rewards Final.
It looked like the trotter had picked a bad moment to make his first mistake with a $20,000 stake up.
But the quality of the race was part of the problem.
“He was trotting up good and I went to ease him in behind and he galloped,” Cameron said.
“It was just inexperience I think, usually he is pushing forward and he just didn’t know what to do.”
“Just with the class of the field, I was looking to get him onto the pegs.”
Brett’s Mate has made good progress winning two of his first six starts and running another three top-four placings.
Cameron expects the horse to get even better when he fills out into his big frame.
“Just with his frame, you would think he would keep improving.”
“He was even trotting pretty lumpy today, he has struggled to get around the last bend but he has been good in the straight.”
“After he has a spell hopefully he can come back a bit stronger.”
“I was going to give him one more start at Ashburton then give him a bit of a break, but now that he has won we might have to reassess things.”
Brett’s Mate should only improve when the grass track racing season comes around again, as well.
His dam notched all eight of her career wins on grass.
