Not like Mario Caltabiano need a “decent horse” to remain in the racing game. Not at all for this racing all-rounder who remains a player.
“I did an apprenticeship, I rode, it [racing] is never out of your blood,” Caltabiano said on Thursday.
Not when you look forward to heading to Randwick on a Saturday. The place Caltabiano found at the age of 15.
Now, as a 62-year-old, Caltabiano will return this weekend and saddle up the next “decent horse”. One called Prettyfamous.
“I haven’t had a good horse since 2009, a horse called Back On Top,” Caltabiano said.
“He was the last decent horse I had. He was a good little horse, ran second in a Gosford Guineas, won three in town on a Saturday.
“They [decent horse] are hard to find, especially when you are a small time trainer.”
Small time maybe but fully paid-up for Caltabiano has never wanted to be a major player. Just wanted to be surrounded by thoroughbreds and family.
Caltabiano was one of the last to train racehorses out of Canterbury. In those days he was also working at Marrickville RSL, he went from a drink waiter to a manager.
“I had a great job in the finish,” Caltabiano said.
Of course, he had the right work ethic. Punching round winners as an apprentice was an earner before weight forced him to give riding away.
Working at the club added to the monetary bank. The one that enabled Caltabiano and his wife Debbie to own a house on Brighton Beach.
Training out of Canterbury didn’t scratch that itch. The Caltabianos sold the Brighton home and bought a home and 12 stables at Warwick Farm.
The one time thoroughbred rider was going to train full-time. Give it a red-hot go. That was back in 1991 and this team is still at Warwick Farm.
“I left school at 14, started in the stables in 1965,” Caltabiano said.
“I was apprenticed in 1967 to a bloke called Terry O’Leary, rode some good horses for him, Gay Gauntlet won a Doobmen 10000, I didn’’t ride him in that.
“He had a horse called Grey Court, won a Lightning Stakes at Randwick on him.
“I was 15 and a half when I won my first race, it was at Kembla Grange, remember the horse, Frisky Morpett.”
Caltabiano chuckles. Reckons he may have been the pea. The good thing. One rival rider told him to go to the front and keep going.
Now Caltabiano is working “half a dozen horses” for “real good clients”. Made all the more easier too.
“I’m lucky, my wife is working,” Caltabiano said. “Debbie works for Darley, she works in administration at Warwick Farm, at Crown Lodge.”
How good is that? Sure there are 12 boxes at the Warwick Farm residence but Caltabiano reckons six horses in work is enough.
Those like Prettyfamous which started her career in town. A rarity for a Caltabiano galloper. You could get an earn winning at Nowra, Muswellbrook, Orange, especially when Caltabiano’s team of owners had their own on.
“It has got harder to win out of town,” Caltabiano said.
“Nowra, Bathurst, the bigger trainers are taking their second and third stringers out there.
“You’ve got to have a handy horse to win out there now. I went to Cessnock on Monday and got beat with one which had won two in a row.”
So what about Prettyfamous in the third at Randwick on Saturday?
“She hasn’t drawn the best but she is a go forward horse and should be up on the speed,” Caltabiano replied.
“She should go well, she is a decent horse.”
The type that keeps everyone in the game. Just ask Mario Caltabiano.
By Craig Young
