What a Save at Gloucester Park
Graybuck and Courtney Burch catching a loose horse. Photo Credit – Hamilton Content Creators
“I’ll say to Gray when it’s time to go “ok buddy let’s go!” It doesn’t work out exactly as planned every time and sometimes it works out better than expected.”
After a pretty successful career on the track and 21 wins next to his name, Graybuck had a switch in careers in 2018 and hasn’t looked back. On Friday night at Gloucester Park, a fall in the eighth on the card saw the now 14-year-old put to work, with Courtney Burch making the catch just metres from the finish line.
Burch spotted the beautiful grey in a retiree paddock at Gary Hall Snr’s property after sustaining a tendon injury in late 2017, and after making a call to his owners over east, Hall delivered the news that Graybuck was all hers and he soon started his training for his next role.
“I realised pretty quickly that he’d be able to do the job. Once he understood that he wasn’t going out on the track to race he picked it up really quickly. Helps that he’s a standardbred and being exposed to a lot of the going ons already,”
“But you never know they’ll really be any good until you do your first catch and put them under the pressure. He did it with ease within our first year of clerking. We’ve been doing it for 3 years now.”
After making her debut as a trainer in the 2009/2010 season at just 20-years-old, Burch soon realised she had a real desire to become a clerk of the course and although it took some time to make that dream a reality, she was determined to combine her love of harness racing and riding into her dream job.
“I’d been wanting to get into clerking back when I was still race driving. I think the first time I said I wanted to do the job and would get there eventually was probably almost 10 years ago.”
Burch is often seen walking around the trots with Graybuck closely following behind without a lead. The relationship between the two is one to be admired, with ‘Gray’ enjoying his nights on the job with plenty of rubs and scratches.
“He’s my partner. We are a team. There’s no other horse I’d want to do this job with.”
It takes a great deal of trust by both horse and rider to be able to successfully catch a loose horse safely and without further interference, but in just three years, Burch and Graybuck seem to have formed the perfect working relationship.
“He’s not just a horse, he’s my best mate and we trust each other. The only way you can do the job is by having trust in your horse and they have trust in you. He’s always been my number one concern and priority,”
“No catch is ever going to be the same. But having confidence in yourself and your horse is most important. I have gained a lot of confidence since being a clerk. Every catch is a big adrenaline rush and I come out of it feeling proud that I was able to help keep drivers and horses safe,”
“I have always loved being a clerk and am forever grateful to everyone that has helped me out along the way to get me where I am today.”
Ashleigh Paikos