Country trainer Deanne Taylor has broken through for her maiden metropolitan success in Melbourne with her first runner at Sandown.
The $2.40 favourite, Silence The Stars was ridden by Craig Williams to take out the Blue Star Print Group Maiden (1600m) on Monday.
Taylor travelled the eastern seaboard of the Australian mainland and Tasmania with her husband Wayne, a part-owner of Silence The Stars, before settling at Moyston, in country Victoria, around seven years ago.
She travels her team of three horses to Stawell for track gallops.
Born in Western Australia, Taylor said she first took out her trainer’s licence in NSW.
“Then we went to Tasmania, up to Queensland, back to NSW and we’re now down here,” Taylor said.
“We travelled a lot with my husband’s work and I kept one or two horses for something to do, but then children came along and you need to settle down a bit.”
Taylor says she doesn’t spend a lot on her horses.
“We get a lot of cast-offs,” she said.
“We bought a mare in foal, with a foal at foot, and he (Silence The Stars) was the unborn foal.”
Having his sixth start which include two second placings, Silence The Stars has now won just shy of $25,000 prize money.
Taylor said Billy Egan, who had ridden the gelding in his previous four starts, would have been aboard on Monday but for receiving dual suspensions last week.
He was capably replaced by Williams who helped put Taylor at ease.
“I did say he should be telling me more than me telling him,” Taylor said.
“He took a bit longer to get there than I thought he would but he got there just in time.”
Silence The Stars defeated Valeria Messalina ($3.30) by a neck with Diplomatic Jack ($6.50) two lengths away third.
