By Duane Ranger (Courtesy of Redcliffe Paceway)
Redcliffe’s ultra-talented teenage reinswoman, Chloe Butler, has produced the most successful race-day of her brief career – and she says her timing couldn’t have been any better.
Last Wednesday the 17-year-old nailed her first hat-trick when winning three of the 10 races programmed by the Redcliffe Harness Racing Club. She then drove another winner on the track the following day.
“I’m so proud to be a Team Teal Ambassador with Taleah McMullen, and so pleased I won three races in February and not January. It means my four wins in two days netted $800 for Team Teal and Ovarian Cancer. That means a lot to me because it’s such a worthy cause,” Redcliffe-based Butler said.
Butler said cancer was a blight on society and she had experienced the disease personally.
My late ‘Pop’ suffered from prostate cancer and then passed away from a heart-related disease. I’ve also known others who have suffered from it, and it just feels so heartening to be able to raise money for such a worthy cause,” Butler said.
“I just want to keep winning more races so Ovarian Cancer sufferers can receive more and more donations from us female harness drivers,” she added.
The first of Butler’s three Redcliffe Paceway victories last Wednesday came in the first event behind the Jack Butler trained Huntaway (3). Then an hour later she repeated the dose for her father/trainer in race three behind Rum Delight (1).
Butler then completed her hat-trick in race eight behind the Lachie Manzelmann trained Cyclone Kelly (4).
Then on Thursday Butler won race seven on behind the Grant Dixon trained Ranieri (9).
Butler relocated to Redcliffe late last year to work for her partner, former Gold Coast horseman, Manzelmann.
“I’m really enjoying working for Lachie and am grateful for the drives I get from him, Dad and other trainers. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do.
“I’m really enjoying living at Redcliffe and working from the Paceway. I love driving here. It was such a great thrill to win three races at a meeting. I’ll never forget my first hat-trick. Maybe one day soon I’ll drive four or five,” Butler said.
“I just want to keep winning,” she insisted.
She said she felt no pressure driving favourites.
“I never look at the tote-board. I always know what kind of horse I have in front of me and drive it accordingly. This is what I’ve always wanted to do and I don’t let the pressure of dividends spoil it.”
On May 21 last year Butler turned 17, which meant she was eligible to drive at Saturday night meetings. At the time she was working for her father, Jack – one of Queensland’s best trainers.
This season she has driven 14 winners from 69 drives and banked more than $80,000 in purses. She’s also placed on 13 occasions. All-up that’s now 87 career wins since she first stepped in the sulky on her 16th birthday, almost two years ago.
Her father said that his daughter was “kind” to horses, and they responded positively to that.
“It seems just like yesterday when Chloe had her first drive, but she’s been keen for a very long time – since she was very young.
“We gave her the chance to get involved with the Mini Trotters, but she always wanted to work with the big horses and bide her time until she was old enough to drive them race-day.
“She was always the first one out of bed in the morning and rearing to get going. She absolutely loves the sport, and with that sort of passion she can’t go wrong. She has learnt a lot over the years, and Tara (mum) and I are very proud of her,” Butler (Jack) said.
His daughter fondly remembers her first winning drive.
That was behind the Jack Butler trained One Wise man at Albion Park.
“That was very memorable because it was just three days after my 16th birthday. I have learnt so much since I was a young,” the former the Emmaus Catholic College Jimboomba student said.
In fact, Butler has grown up around rich New South Wales harness racing blood since day one.
“I grew up on my grandfather, Steve Turnbull’s farm at Bathurst, and he’s a bit of a harness racing legend. We moved up here five years ago, but I did go back and work for ‘Pop’ when I left school,” Butler said.
