06 January 2021 | HRNSW MEDIA
TALENTED young horseman Sean Grayling has no regrets about leaving his native New Zealand to chance his arm as a reinsman in Sydney.
The 25-year-old has called Australia home for four years now after growing up on the North Island of New Zealand in Pukekohe, a 40-minute drive from Auckland.
“My Dad Tony breaks-in, educates and trains a team of anywhere up to 20 horses over there,” said Grayling.
“He has educated many horses for champion trainer Barry Purdon over the years which led me to going to work for the prominent stable at Cleavedon after I left school at 17.
“To date I have driven 120 winners, which includes 12 metropolitan wins at Tabcorp Park Menangle.
“I had driven 25 winners back home before heading over here to try my luck.”
Grayling moved to Sydney in 2017 and for the first eight months worked for Kevin Pizzuto at Rossmore in the city’s west.
He then made the move to work for the Fitzpatrick family at their Jay Jay Farm establishment at Cawdor, which is close to Menangle.
“Working for Kev was fantastic,” said Grayling.
“I got to learn so much from him and it provided me with a lot of opportunities.
“But when the offer came from the Fitzpatricks to go and work for them, I never hesitated as our friendship stemmed back to the days when I was working with Barry.
“The move has been really good as the whole family have been nothing short of great to me.
“I get to drive many of their nice horses, and they allow me to train my own horse out of their farm, which I am really grateful for.”
That horse happens to be the entire Pump The Brakes, who last week recorded his 16th career win and the second since Grayling purchased him.
“I was lucky enough to pick up a metro win with my fellow last Saturday night, his second win in town for us,” said Grayling.
The young reinsman will head across to Penrith on Thursday night where he has four drives.
“All the horses I am driving are well in the market,” he said.
“I really like the chances of Lucky Beach Boy in Race 2.
“He has drawn the back line, but he has really come into his own winning his past two at Penrith and he will be hard to beat again, for sure.”
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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