Couple on the Road to Success from Rodeos to Racing

Rodeo has been a big part of the lives of Stephen and Michelle Bush, but racing is about to change all of that.

The couple, who only started training two months ago, enjoyed their first taste of success this week in style with a winning double at Cluden with Don’t Tell Leeanne and Bay Of Bengal.

After decades of training and riding polo cross and roping horses at the highest level, the couple are now enjoying their new life in Townsville after relocating from Yass two years ago.

Bush, 56, was on cloud nine after the winning double and thanked the support of three wise old heads – Graham Kliese, Frank Edwards and Ivo Fry.

“Ivo, Frank and Graham – you can’t do any better than that,” Bush said.

“I want to ring up and get more weight just to make sure they can ride them,” he quipped.

“They give us a hand every morning. If you have a really good team like that you’re half way there I reckon.

“They’re good fellows and it’s good to come to the work every morning – they’re a good mob of people.

“We’ve only had about 15 or 16 starters and to get a couple of winners today is fantastic.

“I used to ride track work for Kenny Callaghan in Yass about 40 years ago – mainly problem ponies and I was the guinea pig.

“Things change in 40 years and the support Graham and the fellows give us is a big help.

“We thought our horses were fit and happy coming here today and I was just hoping they’d perform well. It’s turned out a very big day.”

Bush, a team rope and calf rope competitor and an accomplished polo cross player in his younger days, and Michelle, a national barrel race title holder, are establishing stables at their Hervey Range property a half-hour drive from Cluden.

They currently have six gallopers in work alongside 18 roping horses but are planning to expand their racing numbers.

“We moved here two years ago. It just got too cold down there (Yass) so I sold our trucking company to come here to warmer country,” Bush said.

“We plan to make racing our main game.

“There’s 30 rodeos within a half hour down there but only one in that range here.

“And it takes big hours and my body isn’t what it used to be.

“So we’ll try what we know in racing and see how far we can go.”

Don’t Tell Leeanne was a bargain buy from Sydney and won at just her third race start after an economical ride from Kliese.

The veteran jockey was is red hot form, backing up to win on Undoubted for trainer Jeff Caught before lifting Bay Of Bengal to a nose win in the last.

Pictured: Stephen and Michelle Bush with jockey Graham Kliese with Bay of Bengal after winning Race 7 at Cluden Park yesterday. 

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