By Jordan Gerrans
When Nick The Skip wins a race on the country circuit in western Queensland, William Toner is able to forget all his problems and savour the moment.
The 59-year-old Charleville-based race horse owner is fighting through a serious battle with Parkinson’s disease.
The veteran gelding is the first horse Toner has raced with Charleville trainer Shane Iverson and the combination has struck gold.
Since the horse transferred to the bush from the Gold Coast, he has won nine races in around 18 months and will soon make a trip to Brisbane.
The stable go in search of victory number 10 together on Saturday afternoon in the feature Roma Cup for 2022.
Toner gets around with a walking stick or frame these days but that does not stop him getting to the track to watch his beloved galloper in action.
He has been on course to see his son of I Am Invincible win on each of those nine occasions and as Iverson jokes, he near-on throws the walking stick away once Nick The Skip bounds over the finish line.
As well as training horses in the Downs Country Racing Association, Iverson also works as a NDIS support carer, with Toner one of his clients.
“His health, it impacts his balance, his mind is tremendous but it is just incurable his brain disease for the poor bugger,” Iverson explains.
“He does not get out and about of the house too much because it can really knock him around when he does.
“Some days he has good days but other days, they are terrible for him and he is buggered.
“I am around him a fair bit of time, through work and through the horses.
“A day at the races, especially when this horse wins, it really, really makes his day.
“It is a special occasion when this horse wins, he does not say much but you know what it means to him.”
Both nearing 60 years of age, it is extraordinary that Iverson and Toner have become major parts of each other’s lives once again.
The pair both attended school in Charleville decades ago – where they were close mates – before going their separate ways.
In his younger years, Toner was a jockey and rode a few winners, before weight got the best of him and he quickly gave it up.
He went on to work at Yarraman Park Stud before moving back to the regional Queensland in recent years.
Toner races the galloper with his two sons – the Toowoomba-based Alex and Ben – with Nick The Skip being the first horse they have had in the Iverson yard.
“We knocked around together as young fellas but after we left school we went our own ways for quite a few years,” Iverson said of Toner.