Every small trainer dreams of getting one good horse to bolster the coffers but Mick Tubman is hoping his luck didn’t stop with Chance Bye.
The flying filly thrust the Kembla Grange trainer into the limelight when she won her first three starts including the 2010 Silver Slipper.
She finished ninth, four lengths from the winner Crystal Lily in the Golden Slipper and managed just one minor placing at three when third in the Silver Shadow Stakes.
Chance Bye was retired after she pulled up lame in a stakes race in March 2011 and was sent to stud where she produced two live foals, both now with Tubman.
Dreams Alive was the first of those and at his fifth start, he won a Kembla Grange 1200m-maiden last month, just days after his mother died in a paddock accident.
He will be out to claim his second win when he lines up over 1300m at Warwick Farm on Wednesday and this time Tubman, who hasn’t been in the best of health, will be there to see him race.
“He’s been a slow learner but I think he is going to be very good,” Tubman said.
“We had him gelded and he’s got his mind on the job now.
“He’s not like his mother. He gets back in his races and just needs a clear run to show what he’s got at the finish.
“I think he will end up being a nice miler.”
Kathy O’Hara rode Chance Bye in all her nine starts and was aboard Dreams Alive for his first win.
But with O’Hara serving a suspension, Winona Costin takes over at Warwick Farm.
“Winona was apprenticed to me when she first started out and I’m sure she’ll do the job.
Dreams Alive and his younger unraced sister Bye See are both by 2008 Golden Slipper winner Sebring and are both raced by Tubman and his old friend Jack Knight.
“Bye See has had a barrier trial and I was going to bring her to Sydney for another one last week but they were washed out,” Tubman said.
“I think she is also going to be very good and will also be a 1400 metre to a mile horse.”
The two are among eight Tubman has in the stable and he hasn’t thought about giving away his day job.
“The batteries get a bit flat so I don’t exert myself,” he said.
“But you’ve got to keep whacking away. You’re a long time dead.”
