By Duane Ranger (courtesy of Redcliffe Paceway)
Gundiah horseman Dean Weller has won numerous bull-riding competitions the world over. He even finished fourth in the World Masters Bull-Riding Championships in 2014.
But the 55-year-old might have wished he was at the Nanango Show on Saturday when last week’s Redcliffe winner, Courageous Leo, put on a bucking bull performance that even Weller would have been proud of.
Two days after nailing the fourth event at Redcliffe Paceway (Thursday), the Weller trained and owned Courageous Leo then sat parked and ran away from them in the first heat of the five-race meeting.
“Sam Clotworthy drove him well at Redcliffe and then Dallas Watkins, who is a very good Show driver, drove both Leo and Gangbuster.
“Gangbuster did the same in the second heat. Sat parked and then careered away to win. Then when it came to the grand final all hell broke loose,” said Weller who was committed to his bucking bulls at the Gayndah Show.
In the grand final Courageous Leo got squeezed out of the 1700m stand not long after the start causing him to lose his driver.
Courageous Leo then bucked and steamed his way around the Nanango Showgrounds like one of Weller’s pure-breed bucking bulls.
“Apparently the sulky was turned upside down, and Leo was hard to catch. He did a couple of laps with a wonky sulky before someone finally got him.
“Moments later he started from gate two and won the final holding out stablemate, Gangbuster. Manoflisa and Its You Not Me completed the field. Dallas drove Leo and Clint Sneddon drove my other one,” Weller said.
“It was a great day out, even though it was a bit scary there for a while. Leo will have a spell now and I’ll take Gangbuster to the Toowoomba Royal Show this weekend. I’d love him to qualify for the Final like Leo has,” he added.
The final Weller was referring to is the $22,210 Showcase Pace which is scheduled for Redcliffe Paceway on June 26. The Show semi-final will be run before at the same venue on June 18.
“It’s been a good month or so. Refferty Delights won back-to-back races at Redcliffe on March 14 and 18 and now Leo has won three straight if you count Saturday’s two Show wins.
It was Weller’s third TAB win of the season. He has now trained 52 winners since May 5, 2000.
“I’ve had a few jobs over the years but am a saddler by trade. I’ve been around horses since I was a kid. Dad (Joe) always had a team, but I never took to them early on. I’ve been involved in boxing and rodeos all my life.
“Dad originally had 50 acres in Zillmere and I was raised there and went to Sandgate High School. We then moved to a 100 acre property Bald Halls, but I spent a lot of my life fighting and riding bulls in the USA.
“In my 30s I started thinking about other careers because even though I was going okay. And making a good living, it was hard from an older fella to match it with the promising teenagers coming through.
“That’s when harness racing became an option. I thought about thoroughbreds, but I’d been around standardbreds through Dad and decided to do the course at the training Centre in Deagon,” Weller said.
“In 1999-2000 I was named the Queensland Amateur Driving Champion 1999-2000,” he added.
He said he loved driving show horses at all the shows with standardbreds he had fixed up. He also enjoyed driving at Rocklea and in the city.
Weller has saluted the judge 68 times since September 15, 2000. He’s had just one drive this season.
“I’ve just been too busy to drive, and the drivers I’ve been using have done a great job.
Just over 10 years ago Weller returned to Masters (over 40s) rodeo riding in the United States and broke both his neck and back and had his seventh vertebrae replaced with titanium.
“I made a brief comeback in 2019 in the US and then out of the blue I decided to retire. Today I breed high quality rodeo bulls, many of which are used for local and national shows.”
Soon after he sat down with his daughter Kalee (Shackleford-Weller) and asked what she wanted to do.
Kalee is 16 now and has always loved harness racing. She was a dedicated Mini Trotting champion, who travelled many miles from Gympie, to compete.
“I said to her that if she wanted to make a career of it, I would support her, and that’s what she has decided to do. Now 18 months later Kalee has applied to Racing Queensland for all the appropriate licences and will hopefully be driving one day soon,” Weller said.
“Big thanks must also go to Drew Turton who gifted Refferty Delights. That was a huge gesture for someone still at school. It gave her even more passion for the sport,” he added.
The duo currently have three racehorses in work – Gangbuster, Refferty Delights, and Courageous Leo.
Courageous Leo has now won 14 of his 88 starts and placed in 18 others for $77,484. Last Thursday’s three metre victory at Redcliffe Paceway was ‘Leo’s’ first of the season.
His winning mile rate of 1:58.4 for the 1,780m mobile was a tad quicker than what he achieved at Nanango on Saturday. He whipped around the tight circuit twice from the 1700m stand in 2:19 and 2:19.5.
Weller said he enjoyed working with horses that needed a bit of work.
“I’ve done a lot of jobs over the years and I’m really enjoying working with horses again, even though breeding and raising quality bulls for rodeos is my main income.
“I treat the horse the same calm way as I do bulls. You make better progress with a person who is calm than what you would someone who is fired up.
“That is the same with animals. I can walk amongst my bulls and they won’t attack. They are used to my calm,” Weller insisted.
Weller won the 2015 Australian Senior Bull Riding title and for 13 straight years he competed in National Rodeo Association Finals.
“I’ve also been Racing Queensland’s standardbred brander for the last 17 years, but sadly they are doing away with that next year.
“But life was is about his Kalee and getting her into harness racing. We are always open to taking more horses. In fact, we could do with a few more, now that we are totally committed to the sport. We only have three race horses plus one other coming into work next month,” he said.
Weller then proudly spoke about his daughter.
“In 2019 Kalee won the Midget Championships at Tamworth, winning all three heats and the final. She was second back-marker and won the heats and the final by more than half of the length of the straight.
“She could not go back this year to defend her title as the Tamworth Mini Trots would not allow any Queenslanders to participate even when no restrictions were in place.
“In her barrel racing she was runner up in two divisions in the NBHA barrel racing which qualified her for the NBHA World Finals in the USA.
“They are in June this year, but a lack of finance meant she was unable to travel over for the finals, but only a week ago she has passed her medical to start her trial drives to get her harness driver’s license.
“Kalee will be looking for trial drives if anyone has horses,” a proud Dad said.
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