A happy Brett Postans and Tom Bryant after their win with Adda Paris. Photo- Photography by Jodie Hallows
Although his introduction to harness racing wasn’t the most traditional one, a part-share in a horse some 11 or so years ago sparked his passion for the sport and on Saturday night at Northam, Tom Bryant notched his first win in the cart at long odds on the Brett Postans trained Adda Paris.
An Operations Manager by day, the father of two is dedicated to his hobby and what started as the occasional weekend fun has soon turned into something he hopes to continue.
“There was a couple of boys from the footy and we thought we would get a greyhound, and we knew Les Sharp who was good friends with Gary Hall Jnr and he said Senior’s got this one for sale, why don’t we look at this, I thought, I don’t know much about the trots, but why not.”
“We were very fortunate and at about his fifth or sixth start in for Murray we won a race at Gloucester Park on a Friday night and that’s where it sort of got me, I thought ‘Wow, how goods this.”
That horse was Thats Ambitious who went on to win three races and six places for Bryant and connections from July 2011 until his retirement in May 2012. They later went on to purchase Big Bad Bob who raced for Murray Hanson in Kalgoorlie, who gave the group quite the thrill in that time, winning four races for the group.
With Bryant situated close to the now closed Cannington training track, he would venture down occasionally to watch the horses work, and after bumping into Brent Scott, Tom soon asked if he could come around the stables to help out and learn the ropes.
“He said sure thing, but I can’t pay you, I told him I didn’t want to be paid, and that’s how it started,”
“I started driving a bit of fast work for him, and he introduced me to Matt (Scott) and that’s how I got involved with Matt. I had a bit of a break for a few years, but decided to go back, and thought, why not try and get a C class licence and go to trials. I finally got the 30 and a full licence.”
Making his debut during the 2019/2020 season, it was drive 114 that proved the winner for Bryant, with Adda Paris breaking a lengthy spell from the winner’s circle – 35 starts in fact, and over 17 months between wins.
“Brett was confident, he thought we could finish in the top three, but he did sort of say if we had the right run, we could win.”
“The way the race panned out it sort of favoured us a bit. He wanted me to hold the top and maybe hand up to Alcopony but we were just beaten for speed a bit from the start and then it just favoured us that they went so hard early that I could get off just before to 400, when I sort of loomed outside of Hayden Hancock, I thought: I’m a chance”
“When I got to the front and I looked over I thought, I’ve got it. I was stoked.”
With Bryant adamant that this isn’t something he will ever do full time, he did confirm that it’s the perfect hobby for him, with the 33-year-old committed to really giving it a go going forward.
“I’m just prepared to go anywhere, and these dual meetings on a Friday night they help big time, especially when all the main drivers are going to town, so I can sort of pick up a few there.”
With the flexibility in his new role at work, Bryant has plenty of support at work from his bosses and colleagues, with his regional manager even calling him at 6.30am on Sunday to congratulate him on the win.
“Unfortunately, Kathleen and the kids couldn’t be there last night, but my dad comes with me every race meeting, he was jumping up and down over the fence when I came back around, he was very excited.”
“Both the kids were asleep, and Kathleen was jumping up and down in the loungeroom, both the kids woke up, the young bloke was saying mummy, mummy what’s wrong, and she said Daddy won, Daddy won.”
“It was quite a pleasant drive home, just me and dad, he was excited that he’s finally got his money back from all the burgers he’s bought at Northam, he had a small bet on it, he was stoked.”
Bryant started his career with his school horse Rather Sentimental, before moving him on to get Follow The Gold.
“I was just fortunate enough to pick up some outside drives for Hayden (Reeves) and Errol (Aschroft), Robin Donnell has been a massive supporter, that was a phone call that surprised me one Wednesday afternoon asking if I’d go to Wagin to drive his horses.”
“He stuck by me through a lot of that, so has Matt (Scott), I still drive trackwork every Saturday and I still get to use one of Matt’s carts, he’s been a massive support.”
“My main focus is just to get as much as a can, but I really want to have a crack at the Albany season, I’m prepared to travel down there and put my name out there, hopefully get five or six a night. There’s not that many concessions going around at the moment, so I just have to keep being prepared to travel down there,”
“The dream is to get to Gloucester Park on a Friday which is still a long way off but just to be up there with the penultimate drivers and go around with them is just pretty surreal.”
“All the support and messages and Facebook notifications I received from the likes of Gary Hall Jnr and Aiden De Campo, just all congratulating me, and so many trainers. As soon as I come back in, there was people everywhere, it was a bit surreal really, it was nice.
“Especially not coming from a family that’s heavily involved in it, and it's really only me and just to start from the bottom and finally win a race, to just get the accolades from fellow competitors and the trainers, it's just awesome.”
https://www-harness-org-au.akamaized.net/wa/NMC29102206.mp4
Ashleigh Paikos