The last time that Manilla trainer and reinsman Chris Sutherland was in the winner's circle was back in November 2005. That was until last Sunday night at the Golden Guitar Paceway Tamworth.
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Sutherland had his last winning drive behind Tonyrama at Narrabri before greeting the judge in the Eco Energy & Solar Solutions Pace at Tamworth with Jax Tellar.
The nine-year-old Modern Art gelding is raced by Sutherland's daughter Courtney, herself a reinswoman who has also achieved winning drives behind Jax Tellar.
"I think Courtney was driving the horse from the grandstand - I could hear her - she was so excited," Sutherland said.
With a small team of only two horses in his stables at Manilla, Sutherland makes use of the Manilla Showground to train his team.
"The horse (Jax Tellar) has been working super and I liked the four barrier even better," he said.
"I took him to Maitland for two weeks in January and worked with other horses down there and he improved out of sight."
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"He had some solid work at Maitland - its hard working the horses on your own - so he has improved working with the other horses."
Whilst down at Maitland, Jax Tellar also picked up a win at Bankstown.
A return back home saw Jax Tellar finish seventh to Sumthin Special from the Shepherdson stables at Tamworth before the win in the Memorial race.
"In his last start at Tamworth he got locked up with nowhere to run," Sutherland said.
After a five-year hiatus from competitive driving himself whilst Courtney made her entry into the industry as a reinswoman, Sutherland recently made the decision to join the ranks once again on the track.
"It is five years since I stopped driving and Courtney has a few work commitments so I thought I would take up the driving again," he said.
"I didn't think I would drive again after such a long break but Rod (Atkins) has been giving me a few tips."
"He said drive the horse (Jax Tellar) with confidence and drive him hard because he can handle it."
From the four barrier Sutherland raced out in the breeze while Shazam Shannon (Lola Weidemann) led the field.
"I knew I had Lola's measure a lap from home," Sutherland said.
"At the 600 mark I let him run - everything went to plan."
"I didn't think they were going to catch me - I kept looking at the line and thought they are not sprinting hard enough as this horse can stick on all day."
"I had actually retired the horse and I gave him two weeks off but he kept running around the paddock so I thought he could earn his feed and then Rod Atkins talked me into going down there (Maitland) for a while," he added.
Jax Tellar had a 2.9 metre win over Ghost Gum (Chris Shepherdson) with Our Ultimate Hanna (Brad Elder) 4.5 metres away third, and clocked a mile rate of 2.00.7 for 1980 metres.
"I was surprised that they had gone two minutes - I can't thank the Atkins family enough for their help," Sutherland said.
"Rowan my son was at the meeting as well to see the win and I got The Pub Drive of the Night so I would say Rowan is my good luck charm."