Former furnishings salesman Damien Batters as soon as offered lounge chairs and couches for Gerry Harvey, however he might be sitting fairly if fairytale filly Social gathering For Two can knock off the large weapons in Saturday’s Blue Diamond Prelude.
The little identified Sunshine Coast coach and his two-year-old filly are driving racing’s magic carpet in a Melbourne autumn marketing campaign which may rattle the cage of a few of racing’s greatest names.
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Social gathering For Two is nearly unknown exterior of Queensland, the filly being twice handed in on the Gross sales earlier than ending up with Batters.
After ending third in a discipline of 5 on debut, she has strung collectively breathtaking wins by 7½ lengths and 2½ lengths on the Sunshine Coast and Doomben respectively.
Now Batters might be tangling with the likes of Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin operation and names like Waterhouse, Freedman, Waller and Moody in Saturday’s Blue Diamond Prelude (fillies) at Sandown.
“When I started training part-time, I was also working in the furniture department of Harvey Norman,” Batters stated.
“I was working in sales and marketing but I was always horse mad, I worked for a few trainers in Adelaide and a few on the Sunshine Coast as well as riding trackwork.
“Then I thought that I was so passionate about horses, I just really wanted to make a go of training instead of it just being part-time and casual.
“I’ve now been training full-time on the Sunshine Coast for probably three years.
“I train off-course opposite the racetrack and there are two barns, one is mine and one is David Vandyke’s and I run that for him too.”
Born and raised within the Adelaide Hills, Batters spent earlier than and after college in addition to weekends surrounded by horses in a close-by secure.
He realized to experience on an outdated retired racehorse known as The Cent – the winner of the 1973 Nice Jap Steeplechase.
“Growing up there were some family problems, I just really wanted to get around horses so I tried to spend almost every waking moment with them,” Batters stated.
“When I learned to ride on The Cent he was about 28 years old, but he was still acting like a five-year-old so it taught me a lot.”
Quick ahead to at present and the prospect to coach Social gathering For Two emerged out of pure persistence from Batters.
He had been in touch with Telemon Stud boss Dan Fletcher about probably coaching one other horse earlier than Social gathering For Two got here onto the radar.
“We started talking about another horse but then we went to chatting about a little filly he had, by Sidestep, I told him I would be really keen to train her,” Batters stated.
“I just harassed them (Telemon Stud) until they gave her to me.
“I think they liked my enthusiasm and how willing and keen I was to have a young crop of horses in my stable.
“From the first time I saw this filly, she had a great personality which I loved.
“These fillies have to have personality that just makes them stand out from the rest.
“She was a bit naughty, a bit cheeky, but we found every time we asked her to do something, she knew what she had to do.
“She picked up things really well.
“And her progression from each time we asked her to do something is showing in her races too.
“She gets on with things, she is very professional and very smart.”
It’s truthful to say the bar has been lifted sky excessive for Social gathering For Two, given a two-year-old race in Rockhampton was initially within the blueprint.
However ideas of a Group 1 Blue Diamond marketing campaign emerged about the identical time as she breezed residence to win at Doomben on January 21.
Batters, a 42-year-old father of 5, is now daring to dream his filly may produce one thing particular in Saturday’s Prelude to frank her credentials for the Blue Diamond.
“We had never really planned anything beyond her next race, that was until she went to Doomben and did what she did,” Batters stated.
“She won by a few lengths in good time and Nikita (jockey Nikita Beriman) didn’t pull the stick on her at all, it was all just hands and heels.
“Nikita got off that day and said it was a glorified track gallop for the filly, she had so much left to give.”
Social gathering For Two, to be ridden by former Victorian Beriman, is rated an $11 likelihood to take out Saturday’s Prelude.
Social gathering For Two was Beriman’s first Saturday metropolis winner in virtually three years, after the Group 1 successful jockey emerged from retirement.
Initially printed as Fairytale Queensland filly Party For Two and her little known trainer Damien Batters take shot at Blue Diamond Prelude
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