Tom Ison is celebrating the biggest win of his career, with the promise of a potentially even bigger one to come.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The young Tamworth trainer and reinsman will contest the $100,000 TAB Regional Championship State Final at Menangle this coming Saturday night with Metallica Man after taking out the Hunter Final.
The feature event at the Newcastle Paceway on Friday night, it was a close finish with Metallica Man getting home in the $100,000 race by a half head over Man From Braavos (Luke McCarthy). Jasper Styles (Sean Grayling) was another half neck away third.
"I was unsure if we had won the race or not so I turned to Luke (McCarthy) and he said 'you got it'," Ison said.
"I was pretty relieved - it's been a long two weeks just waiting for the final"
"I think it is a pretty special win - it just proves that Tamworth horses can do it."
He is the first Tamworth, or indeed north west, trainer to win the Hunter final since the series was introduced in 2020.
"It's a great race and country horses are given a chance to chase that sort of prizemoney," Ison said.
Heats were contested with a mixture of North West and Hunter based horses.
"It was a great grand final," he said.
"There were four horses from Tamworth who contested the heats - two made the consolation and two were in the final."
Paratrouper from the Jamie Donovan stables was the second horse from the north west to contest the final with an impressive run to finish sixth.
Metallica Man, a four-year-old Tintin In America-Sokyou Go Girl gelding, is raced by Quirindi owners Brendan Hunt and partner Lyndal Saunders and other family members.
"Brendan had the whole family there," Ison said.
"They just loved it."
At 24 the youngest trainer in the field, heading back to the stabling area, he also received a great reception.
"Everyone wants to win a race like that and it was congratulations everywhere," he said.
Since taking out his trainer's licence in 2021, Ison has trained 22 winners and had 22 placings from 87 starters. He is no slouch with the reins either being just three wins away from driving five hundred winners.
With 20 horses in work, he is also looking to the future.
"I will just keep on keeping on - it is back to Newcastle to race again on Monday," Ison said.
He has Hidden Figure, Special Ned and Our Aunty Ash engaged there.
Metallica Man made his way into the final after finishing fourth to My Ultimate Skeeta on May 5 at Newcastle.
"He never got a look in the heat - he still had the ear plugs in," Ison said.
He however thought they were "a big chance" in the final, especially after the barrier draw.
"The draw sorted the field out and when I drew better than the rest of them, I thought it was our chance," Ison said.
He went straight to the lead from the three barrier with Metallica Man and dictated the race tempo and terms of the race.
Metallica Man received his first race pressure when the Melanie Elder-trained Man From Braavos produced a three wide run around the field to then race outside of the gelding just as the bell sounded for the final lap.
"Man From Braavos was my main danger and he had to do a lot of work in the race," Ison said.
"We made him work to get outside of us."
"We got going at the 500 mark and the back markers couldn't get into the race."
With the race contested over 2030 metres the mile rate was 1.57.5 with quarters contested in 30.5 seconds for the first quarter; 29.6 for the second quarter; 28.6 for the third quarter and 29.2 for the final quarter.
The night was a success for Ison, driving a double after taking the first event on the program with Doug's Rules trained at Tamworth by Brendan James.
At Menangle, Ison and Metallica Man will race against runners from the other finals contested at Wagga, Bathurst and Menangle.
