BETWEEN running a real estate business, calling football games every weekend of the season, trying to keep track of his trotters and still training horses – something’s got to give where Noel Watson is concerned.
And this year it’s the bet365 Swan Hill Cup Carnival, which has drawn the short straw with the local trainer looking set for just one runner across the three days of racing.
Six-year-old gelding Capito will be flying Watson’s St Kilda colours and even he would be happy to see his horse salute – 30 starts are way too many for him to remain a maiden.
At Horsham on May 28, Capito finished third in his first outing after an 82-week spell and a change from the stables of fellow Swan Hill trainer Nathan Hobson.
Watson says he has one other horse he might also enter but will wait and see what happens.
Capito shows signs of consistency – in his last six starts before the spell and the move to Watson, the horse ran three placings and a fourth.
Career-wise he has been a bridesmaid five times (in three of them the biggest losing margin was a long neck) and filled the minor placing seven times.
“The third at Horsham was a good show for a first-up after such a long spell, a decent showing which makes you think that first win can’t be too far away,” Watson says.
“Our trackworker and strapper Bonnie Walker is spending more time with the horses than me at the moment – and she’s only running three in work with a couple more spelling – as things right now are a little bit busy at work, and with the football show in the mornings and calling games in the afternoon it doesn’t leave you a lot of time to spare.
“With the way the real estate market is, if you can get them you can sell them, and that keeps you going flat out.”
