What A Year It’s Been For Kyle Symington
Symington after his first metro win on board Miss Limelight NZ. Photo Credit – Gloucester Park Social Media
An eventer from a young age, it wasn’t until he was in high school that Kyle Symington first experienced working with pacers when he took up a casual job in the school holidays working for the highly successful stable of group winning trainer, Justin Prentice.
Learning to ride at the age of eight, it wasn’t until Symington turned 12 that he started to compete regularly in eventing, with the majority of his eventing done on board his standardbred mare Too Busy Talking, who failed to set the track alight with just the four failed attempts at the races, but eventually going on to be quite the eventer for Symington.
“One of our good family friends Tiffany let me have a ride on one of her horses one day and I showed an interest ever since. I competed up to C Grade eventing and 90cm show jumping but spent most of my time competing young horses.”
Kyle Symington with his mare Too Busy Talking. Photo supplied.
Horses were in his blood, with his father a polo cross player before having kids, Symington was always destined to have a passion for horses in one way or another, eventually gravitating towards the pacers.
Making his debut on the 25th of May 2021 on board Tactile Sensation at Gloucester Park, Symington had less than three months to wait until he landed his first win on board Fleur Du Maquis for Bianca Ashcroft at Narrogin, with both horse and driver breaking their maiden status on the 7th of August 2021.
At the age of just 20-years-old, he is edging closer to 500 drives, with Symington currently sitting on 497 race drives for 55 wins and 110 placing in just a year since making his official debut. Kyle made the decision to relocate to Perth just before Christmas to start university where he is currently completing a Bachelor of Business, majoring in accounting at Murdoch University, as well as working for in-form stable of Ryan Bell.
Working for Bells Pacing Stable has opened up an array of opportunities for the youngster, with Friday the 13th anything but unlucky for Symington, with the young driver landing his first metropolitan winner on board the Ryan Bell trained Miss Limelight NZ at $14 odds.
“It’s always a thrill going out there no matter the horse you’re behind, but knowing you have the horsepower in front of you to be able to make moves to put yourself into the race is fantastic.”
Symington heads to Gloucester Park tonight with just the two drives, taking the steer on Cavalry Call in race 3 for Peter Tilbrook, then Thejewelinhereye for Clinton Pearce in race 5.
Ashleigh Paikos