A ‘Welcome’ first win for Donaldson-Aitken

RECORDS will forever show Welcometotheshow at Swan Hill as being Tyler Donaldson-Aitken’s first ever winner as a trainer.

And while it only took the astute Ballarat-based horseman six starters to tick off his maiden win early last week, he’s definitely no newcomer to racing.

In an industry where pedigree counts for plenty, Donaldson-Aitken’s is blue chip.

The son of former multiple Group 1-winning jockey Stan Aitken and the grandson of Australian Olympic showjumper Milton Donaldson, he took out his training licence after a long and advantageous apprenticeship under some of the industry finest educators in Ballarat and Melbourne, among them Robert Smerdon, Mike Moroney, Bill Cerchi and Nigel Blakiston.

It’s another exciting step and the biggest since the launch of his highly regarded breaking, pre-training and retraining venture in Geelong a few years ago, before expanding to Ballarat.

Granted a licence last year, Donaldson-Aitken had his first runner in late-May.

His ascension into the training ranks was in some ways an itch that needed to be scratched.

“I’ve had a few horses that I’ve bought and sold on, but the training licence really opens up the doors and possibilities to officially race your horses and then maybe sell them on,” he said.

“It’s the highest licence to have in the industry, so it’s a good ticket to have.

“But apart from the dry stuff, it’s a great challenge.

“It’s a very competitive industry and increasingly hard to get a good result, even when everything does go your way, the competition and the challenge is something I welcome.

“I’m very lucky to have had the old man and a few of the people who grew up around racing to give me a good sounding board to ask questions and get their advice.

“There is so much to learn, and you’ll never know it all.”

Donaldson-Aitken has so far relished the transition from pre-training and breaking in horses to full-on training.

“With breaking in problem horses, you are really focusing on their mind a lot – as well as developing them physically – but it’s all a very mental thing with you and the horse and understanding what it’s thinking,” he said.

“With the training, it’s a lot to do with physically having them 100 per cent right and being able to have the insight of working with horses mentally.

“It’s a big upside to be able to piece the mental side together with the physical side.

“You need to be on the ball.”

Welcometotheshow has quickly established himself as the pick of the stable’s runners to date.

Purchased by Donaldson-Aitken for $24,000 in 2023, the now four-year-old (he was a three-year-old when he won for the first time) had his first two starts for a pair of thirds for Kylie and Steven Vella in November last year.

Back under Donaldson-Aitken’s care, he put the writing on the wall with a second on the Ballarat synthetic in June and another second at Seymour, nine days before his Swan Hill breakthrough, where he was ridden by Ballarat jockey Will Gordon.

The young trainer conceded he was cautiously optimistic Welcometotheshow would get the job done over the 1300m trip.

“He opened up on the Tote at $1.85 favourite, so obviously people thought he was a great chance, and by the time we got him around behind the barriers, he was $1.35,” he said.

“It was a situation where I’m thinking I hope he wins, otherwise I am going to be scratching my head and copping some flak from sore-pocketed punters.

“But you take the ups when you can get them.”

Likely the most intriguing inclusion on Donaldson-Aitken’s first-class resume was his participation in the 1000km Mongol Derby.

The longest horse race in the world, the equestrian endurance event is modelled on the postal route established by Genghis Khan in 1224.

Riders spend between 13 and 14 hours in the saddle over 10 days in what Donaldson-Aitken branded an ultra-gruelling experience of a lifetime.

“I signed up for it with friends during COVID and it was delayed a few years, but I was working flat out, so I didn’t pay much attention to exactly what it was and what I had gotten myself into,” he said.

“The warm-up was pretty blasé but I ended up coming equal fourth with another guy from Australia that I met there.

“It’s not your a*** that gets sore, it’s your knees because for most of it you are trotting your horses, a smaller Mongolian pony, over 12 hours a day.

“Extremely tough, but a remarkable experience. How you feel at the end of is priceless.”