Club Spotlight: Nanango

By Jordan Gerrans

Before John Hamilton’s wife passed away earlier this year, the former jockey made a promise that he would win three straight races with the family’s galloper - Oakfield Comanche.

While John has been involved in the racing industry for much of his life, on and off, he was yet to take out his own training license until well after his wife Kaylene passed.

An asthmatic, Kaylene struggled with her health for six years before her death and while the horses were in her name, John did much of the work to prepare the team in her last few years.

Prior to her passing, John told his wife that Oakfield Comanche would continue to race in her honour, with his plan to have the gelding win three on the trot.

The Nanango-based horseman backed up his promise to his late wife, the chestnut gelding going bang in three consecutive starts, firstly on their home track, before heading to Wondai and Burrandowan, in a fitting tribute to her memory and legacy.

“I promised her before she died that I would try and win three straight with this horse,” Hamilton recalled a few months on.

“And, I did.

“She was under trainer Janene Armstrong’s name back then, with wins at Wondai, Nanango and then Burrandowan.

“He is a pretty handy horse.”

Kaylene’s father - Norm Calvert - was heavily involved in the industry across the Nanango area around 40 years ago before she followed him into the sport.

Nanango Race Club president Andrew Green, who also holds a trainers licence, remarked that the Hamilton’s were industry stalwarts of the South Burnett region of Queensland.

“They have both had quite a bit of success over the years and of course John has taken it all over now,” Green said.

“It is nice he kept the horse going. He has continued it on.”

Across her almost decade as a trainer, Kaylene collected 10 winners from 127 starters.

When the Dream Ahead gelding did win three on the bounce earlier this year, he was trained by fellow local horseman Janene Armstrong, while being owned by the Hamiltons, but John has taken over the training duties since the middle of August.

The five-year-old gelding provided “rookie” trainer John his maiden victory on debut at Wondai in the middle of October before two more third-placed finishes followed.

A race rider in the late 1960s and early 1970s, John has spent long periods away from the racing game at times over the years but has been back in over the last decade with wife Kaylene, before her passing.

“While I did most of the training, I left the horses in my wife’s name because she loved it, getting the glory on race day,” John said.

“She just loved it. It was great.”

Purchased online after starting his career south of the border with Kristen Buchanan, Oakfield Comanche has been a consistent galloper for the family, winning six times from 13 trips to the races, on top of two other minor placings.

While the Buchanan barn was quick to tip the gelding out, John was taken with his trial at Gosford last year, running third while being beaten just under a length.

He faces a stern test this weekend on his home track, stepping up to Open Company over 1200 metres.

At 76 years of age and being retired from the work force, Hamilton loves pottering along training the one racehorse at a track that he believes is excellent to prepare gallopers at.

“I would not be anywhere else, it is a good spot at Nanango,” John said.

“We have a walker that we use whenever we want, the training track is sand.

“We can go over to Wondai and work the horses there too if we want, my one loves the sand there, the big horse does.”

As John notes, trainers enjoy basing themselves at Nanango with the club’s committee reporting a boom on stables being based at the club in recent years.

Club president Green, whose father trained as well, remarks that there is more trainers than he has seen in a long time being based at the track over the last few years.

When Green first got his licence in 1994, he estimates there were 27 trainers at Nanango, which fell away to only a handful about a decade ago.

As we close in on 2022, Green recently counted 14 individual trainers at the track of a morning.

Leading trainer in the area, Glenn Richardson, has the bulk of the horses, with around 20 in work, but all up almost 50 gallopers are regularly prepared at the facility.

“It was very much a family thing when I first started, there was a number of Richardsons who trained and some still do,” Green said.

“These days there is a lot of new faces in town that have got into training.

“There is a lot of people here at the moment, there is 14 or 15 people here working their horses.”

Nanango Race Club will pay tribute to three separate families who have contributed to the industry in the area, running three memorial races across the five event non-TAB this Saturday afternoon. 

The club will also hold a leg of the Burnett to Beach points series, which Green says is always a popular event around the South East region race clubs.

The series winds its way through the Burnett region before finishing at Bundaberg next year.

“It is always well received by trainers and jockeys, they are always popular series’,” Green said.

Club spotlight will be a regular feature that shines a light on the unique and individual racing clubs across Queensland.