Sues hopes for happy homecoming with first metropolitan win

By Glenn Davis

Trainer Mark Sues is hopeful of a happy homecoming to Queensland when seven-year-old Commodus attempts to give him first Brisbane metropolitan winner at Doomben on Wednesday.

Commodus – a Marnu Potgieter mount – tackles the Benchmark 65 Handicap over 1660 metres.

It will be Sues’ 12th starter since he moved back to Queensland from Victoria where he was based at Cranbourne for six years.

“I was mostly running businesses down there and training was more of a side job,” Sues said.

The 48-year-old Sues hails from Gordonvale in North Queensland and has been involved in racing ever since he was a teenager.

He started working in racing as a stable hand, progressing to a stable foreman for former North Queensland trainer Leon Morton and fellow trainers Ralph and Brett Baker.

He also worked for six months as foreman for Gai Waterhouse in Sydney.

“I started training for a little bit after I was a foreman and a stable hand but I had to give it away for a while because of business and family commitments,” Sues said.

“I’ve been training on and off since I was licensed in 1992 and we moved back to Queensland in October last year.”

As well as training, Sues runs Embrace Farm, a pre-training, education and spelling farm in the Glasshouse Mountains.

“I’ve got 44 stables and 60 paddocks at Embrace Farm which we’ve built in the Glasshouse Mountains,” Sues said.

Sues relocated from Queensland to Newcastle which he called home for two years before moving to Cranbourne.

It didn’t take long for Sues to land his first winner back in his home state when Commodus won a Class 3 event on a heavy track at the Sunshine Coast in the middle of January.

Commodus is lightly raced for a seven-year-old having started only 23 times for four wins and six placings with prize money earnings of more than $153,000.

A son of Uncle Mo, Commodus followed up his Sunshine Coast victory when ninth to the Robert Heathcote-trained O’miss Behaving in a 1600 metre Benchmark race at Doomben on February 10.

He was then beaten less than two lengths running home strongly for fourth to Goldeel over 1640 metres at Doomben on February 28.

“He would have won last start had he settled one pair closer,” Sues said.

“He’s been working well since and I’m putting blinkers on him to sharpen him up a bit.”

Commodus is likely to head to the spelling paddock after his Doomben assignment and will return for the latter stages of the Queensland Racing Carnival.

“He’s a good horse and I’d like to target the Glasshouse Handicap with him at the end of the winter carnival,” he said.