From Dirt to Turf, Royes on a Winning Path

Former Mt Isa trainer Steven Royes doesn’t have many horses in work but he’s throwing everything into clinching another win with a strong team of chances at Cluden Park tomorrow.

Royes is confident he has a winner among his four starters on tomorrow’s eight-event card which was originally scheduled for Bowen but was shifted to Townsville because of rain.

After 35 years of working at Mt Isa Mines and honing his skills as a trainer on the vast western circuit, Royes shifted to Townsville late last year and is already striking a blow for the battlers with a small string of horses.

The highly respected part-time trainer has six in work with four runners tomorrow, led by Count Of Carford, and he thinks he has a great chance of adding to the five TAB winners (17% strike rate) he’s already prepared this season. 

“When I came to Townsville, it was a lifestyle choice. I was never going to be a full time trainer. Most of the horses I’ve got I own myself, and to do that down here it’s tough when people are paying big money for horses. It’s very hard to compete when you’re a battler,” Royes said.

“I needed a sponsor and I found it a little hard to start with, but when I produced a few results with a couple of slow ones I brought in from Mt Isa, Clarrie Hermann from out Winton way rang me up and asked if I’d be interested in taking a few horses for him and I said yeh. 

“Clarrie’s in his 80s and his hobby is racing. He’s got horses in Rocky, including his good horse Bollente. 

“The couple that he sent me weren’t supposed to be that good. One of them  – Flaming Torch - wasn’t going too bad and I said to him ‘I’m taking this horse to Cairns’. 

“Clarrie said ‘what do you think’ and I said ‘he’s 50-1 and he doesn’t deserve to be that price. I don’t know the horses in the race but he’s going pretty good this horse.’ Well, he backed him and had a good win. 

“The further I go into racing down here the more I’m learning. Out there you don’t have to work them too much – it’s just survival of the fittest. Get to the front and kick the dirt back in their faces

“Down here it’s totally the opposite, you’ve got to work them and have them hard and ready to win.”

Royes might be new to the Townsville training ranks, but he’s been no stranger to the winners stall at Cluden down through the years.

His most notable win was with the very fast Albertique in the 2013 Talbot Heatley Lightning.

He returned the following year to run second.

His prolific winner Loud Enough, now retired, was a stable star in the west for a number of seasons and a regular visitor to the Townsville carnival. 

In more recent times he’s had good success with honest mare Dusky Damsel, a cheap buy, who he admits has “grown another leg” with two Townsville wins in her last preparation.

In a strong lead for punters, Royes has booked leading rider Nathan Day to ride his four runners tomorrow, recent winner Count Of Carford, Flaming Torch, Bottom Line and newcoming Trinity Missile.

He rates Count Of Carford in the Brown Brothers Class 4 Hcp (1000m) and Cairns winner Flaming Torch in  the TAB BM58 Hcp (1400m) his best chances.

“I’ve got a big opinion of Count Of Carford, who is a seven-year-old and hadn’t done much in Victoria,” Royes said.

“The bloke who got him for me told me a million reasons why he hadn’t been a shining light down there, but you’ve heard it all before.

“But he’s been going great here and he was very good when he won first up. I’ve just been nursing him along to get his head right.

“The trip might be a touch short but he’s going well. I honestly think he could be a carnival horse.

“Flaming Torch, if he runs straight at his past two, he wins. He’s got the blinkers and I think he’ll be a bit more genuine.

“Nathan Day said to me, and I don’t know the man, ‘for god’s sake give me a ride on that horse. That’s why he’s on him. I said ‘you want to ride him you might as well ride the lot’.

“I’ve targeted this meeting because Bowen had a good program. Very seldom do you see class races any more but they put on a class 1, a 3, a 4 and a six.

“And now we’ll get to run in them here at Cluden and it’s a beautiful track.”

Royes said he would consider training full time in the future, but in the meantime he’ll continue to divide his time with fly-in fly out work at Dugald River and training a small team at his Wulguru stables.

The eight-race card kicks off with the Cluden Park Mdn Hcp (1200m) at 12.53pm.

Pictured: Trainer Steven Royes with former Victorian galloper Count Of Carford after his impressive win at Cluden in December. Royes is keen on his chances again tomorrow.

See the racing calendar for upcoming race days.