500 UP FOR TEAM TARA!

One of South Africa’s most experienced and resilient lady trainers, the feisty Tara Laing celebrated a magic 500 winner milestone at Fairview on Friday.

The What A Winter filly I Like It Hot won the final event of the day under Mathew Thackeray for owners Derek Brugman, John Kelly & Rod Mattheyse to bring up the champagne moment.

In an ironic circle of life that only racing delivers, Tara’s first winner as a private trainer for Mayfair Speculators saw Derek Brugman at the helm as Racing Manager. Brugman is a part owner in the 500th milestone winner, I Like It Hot.

“This was a very special win for me! It was really nice to have Tara Harding out from Australia to help out in the winning lead in. And here’s to everybody that has contributed to this milestone,” Tara added with misty eyes in what was clearly an emotional moment.

A courageous straightshooter, Tara has not had it plain sailing for the past five years. She basically had to reinvent herself after the Mayfair Speculators bomb in 2018. And then covid came along to rub salt into the wound. But with the support of her partner Gavin Venter and son Ewan, she transitioned from being a private trainer to opening up the yard to new clients.

And she has a cv to be proud of!

Tara started her professional equestrian life as a show-jumper. “We were originally living in the Transvaal and then my parents moved to Natal and that’s when I got involved in racing. A couple of jockeys asked me to come and ride work at Summerveld one morning and that was it – I was hooked.”

She joined Tessa and Johnny Dawson at Summerveld, alongside Julie Dittman, stable jockey Nick Shearer and apprentice Justin Henson and never looked back. “I started off as a groom and over the years I worked my way up the ladder.”

When her parents moved back to Joburg, she went along – with her jockey fiancé at the time.

“I’ve had a wonderful story-telling life,” she smiles.

“I worked at Randjesfontein for many years and then left racing and went back to show-jumping to work for Errol Wucherpfennig. Then I met my ex-husband and we got married and he said let’s move to PE as it would be a better environment to start a family.

Ewan was born, I divorced and shortly afterwards Justin Snaith phoned and said I want you to run my yard and I said that’s fine,” she recounts matter-of-factly.

Tara spent 10 years running the Snaith’s satellite operation in Gqeberha before deciding she needed a change.

“I’ve always wanted to work for as many people as I could. Everyone trains differently, everyone has different methods and everyone has their two cents’ worth. In a racing yard, you learn something new every day.”

She saw an ad for an assistant to run a satellite operation for the late Sean Miller. “Peter had all the Mayfair horses in Gqeberha at Fairview. When Peter passed away, his son took over in Kimberley, so I was employed to train the Mayfair horses at Fairview.

The next phone call I got was ‘you’d better take out your licence, you’re now a trainer!” That was back in 2012 and she’s been holding her own ever since, despite the bumps in the road of life.

Has she enjoyed it? “I love it,” she enthuses in her Scottish brogue.

“You meet so many people in different walks of life. It’s like a box of smarties – each to their own.”

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