Day at the beach for Haydon and Palasthy

By Jordan Gerrans

Trainer Tony Haydon was full of praise for up-and-coming hoop Nora Palasthy after the team combined to claim the Burnett to the Beach decider at Nanango on Saturday afternoon.

Haydon’s stable star Hurricane Hall qualified for the Nanango Final by landing a heat on his home deck at Gympie in late November.

The 20-year-old Caloundra-based apprentice Palasthy was in the saddle at Gympie on that afternoon and experienced trainer Haydon put faith in her by booking the youngster for the rich Final.

Palasthy did the job on Saturday and guided the bay gelding to victory while carrying a sizeable impost.

As well as the BTTB Final, the Palasthy and Haydon team also won an earlier race on the program with Babu King.

“I thought young Nora rode both my horses a treat,” the horseman said.

“They both drew good gates. She is a nice quiet kid and well-mannered.

“She rides to instructions and there is not much more than what you can ask than that.

“She will polish up as a rider the more rides she gets but at this stage, she is a cracking little kid and a good little rider.”

Palasthy now has five victories to her name since debuting in late September of this year, with three of those triumphs being for the Haydon barn.

The $20,000 winning purse for the BTTB series of 2024 has only added to the already booming stakes earnings of Hurricane Hall for the Haydon team.

Previously based at Caloundra before moving north to Gympie a couple of years ago, Haydon outlaid just $800 for the gelding as a baby and Saturday’s result pushed his career bank past $65,000.

The gelding has won on six occasions and placed on five more from 20 race day appearances.

Haydon jokes that Hurricane Hall is ‘propping up the stable’.

“I think you end up collecting over $13,000 for first place prize money,” Haydon said of Saturday’s event.

“It is good money. If you try and go anywhere else and get that money – you are racing against far better quality.

“It is hard to win anywhere these days. These kinds of series’ help to keep bush racing nice and strong.”

The popular BTTB series consists of six heats before the rich Final with points awarded at each heat ahead of the decider.

Developed by the South East region race clubs, the BTTB series is a group of races with above standard prize money.

The first heat was contested at Gayndah in the middle of October.

Haydon left his run late with his gelding – claiming the second last heat – but it was enough to book his slot for the Nanango decider.

“We did have our eyes on it but we didn’t at the same time,” the Gympie trainer said of the series. 

“There was no pressure to aim at it but if we won a heat, which we did on our home track at Gympie, that made life easier.

“We were still unsure about going to Nanango but following the rain, we decided to go.

“Hurricane has lumped the big weight and he was travelling through the run but he looked to be treading water at the top of the straight.

“But, he made good ground late – I thought the horse was very brave.”

Haydon spent 20 years with champion trainer Peter Moody, largely as a foreman when Moody was winning Victorian premierships and travelling the globe with Black Caviar.

He took a break from the caper around a decade ago but the racing bug bit hard and he soon made a return.

Haydon has a team of 10 gallopers based at Gympie and rates the track at the Gympie Turf Club as one the better facilities to work horses on in South East Queensland.

He also helps run Tony Gollan’s spelling facility, which is based not far from Gympie.