Plenty to smile about after Melton triumph

TERRY GRANGE (HARNESSLINK)

KYLE Marshall, one of Victoria’s exciting young harness racing trainers, admits it was a story of both relief and satisfaction for his stable at Melton on Saturday night.

“It was so good to get that first one out of the way and he’s pulled up very well,” Marshall, who is based at the Cranbourne training facility, said.

The 30-year-old was referring to a brilliant victory by Bach (Bettors Delight) in the $17,500 Lifestyle Communities Pace.  The talented former Kiwi pacer did it the hard way from the death-seat, but looked strong in posting a smart 1.53-2 mile rate for 1720m.

Marshall is still a little miffed with the speedster’s first run in Australia about three weeks ago in the Cranbourne Cup, when he galloped and lost all chance.

“There was really no reason – he’d never done that at home, so we’ve just worked on ironing out a couple of small things. I really think he’s just got to learn the style of racing over here,” Marshall said.

Bach recorded eight wins and three placings from 29 starts in New Zealand before landing out here in mid-January.

Marshall said he would just keep the horse ticking along, as he’s reasonably lowly rated.

“At this stage he will probably go around in the Melton Plate on Saturday week (Mar 16),” he said.

“In New Zealand, Bach was racing against the really good horses, and he was just a bit below the top ones. Robert and John Dunn had him and he come out in fantastic order.”

Marshall, a former Kiwi himself, moved here nearly 12 months ago with his partner Sophie Jefferies.

“We are really enjoying it and at the moment we are doing a team of 12. We had quite a few more than that at one stage, but in an ideal world we plan to stick to a maximum of 15 so we can focus on each horse,” he said.

“We do get busy, but we still find time to keep an eye on the racing back home,” Marshall laughed.

In his first Oz season last year, from just 71 starters, Marshall trained 17 winners and was placed 25 times.  He landed 14 victories as a driver while Sophie greeted the judge on four occasions from her 30 drives.