One of the state's most respected horsemen, Danny Williams, has returned to training in his home town of Goulburn out of the boxes vacated by Guy and Wendy Walter.
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Williams only recently quit his post as Tony McEvoy's right-hand man at the dual state trainer's Hawkesbury base, but has surprised even himself by jumping straight back into training with just one horse, Shout To The Top.
The gelding won its first two starts for Williams at Goulburn before an unplaced run at Randwick behind Lorna May under McEvoy's care.
"This has come a bit earlier [than expected] as I wanted to have a bit of a break and get away and do some jobs I had on the backburner, but it was an opportunity to take this horse so I jumped at it," Williams said. "I thought if I'm going to take one, I might as well get back into it."
Williams' family remained in Goulburn while he pursued an opportunity with McEvoy, making the decision to base himself there in the interim an easy one.
"We're hoping to get more clients - I'm not sure how many I really want - I just want to make sure I'm doing the right job," he said.
"The main reason I train horses is because I really love it, I enjoy it. That's really my main focus instead of getting numbers.
"It's a really hard process getting owners and getting started again because we've had to start from scratch. We're having to buy new gear and get re-established so to speak.
''There's going to be some tough, hard yards for a while until we get going."
Williams expects Shout To The Top to return to racing within the next month.
TRAINERS TRAVEL NORTH
Sydney's leading trainer Chris Waller and astute Warwick Farm horseman Matthew Smith will extend their reach to the country cups circuit, with both expected to feature in next Sunday's $60,000 XXXX Gold Taree Cup.
Waller will enter Done Nothin' Wrong while Smith has entered Ragtime Cowboy Joe. The cup is the feature on the second day of Taree's Friday-Sunday carnival.
Champion Victorian trainer Peter Moody will be the special guest at Taree's launch dinner at the track on Thursday night.
Moody has carved out a reputation as a fantastic after-dinner speaker and will be relaying tales of his time with unbeaten mare Black Caviar.
The $20,000 Class 2 Handicap will be the highlight the following day with the Taree Cup calcutta function to be held on Saturday before the big cup meeting.
TRIBUTE TO EGAN
The country racing community is mourning the death of long-serving racing administrator Douglas Egan, who died on Wednesday, He was 76.
Egan was the Narromine Turf Club's president and longtime committeeman of the Western Racing Association. He was also a close friend of NSW's racing minister Troy Grant.
Only last week Hidden Strategy, a horse part-owned by Egan, won a restricted race in front of a huge crowd at the annual Louth races.
The Narromine Turf Club will hold a sombre $26,000 Narromine Cup meeting on Sunday. The last event has been renamed the Douglas Egan Appreciation Benchmark 65 Handicap and jockeys riding in the race will wear black armbands.
TAB meetings: Sunday - Casino, Narromine. Monday - Goulburn. Thursday - Grafton. Friday - Scone. Saturday - Port Macquarie.
