Eadesy does it for Nevin

By Brad Kingsbury
EVERY morning the Cranbourne Training Complex boasts an interesting and vastly different cross-section of the equine fraternity all intent on the same goal- preparing the next race winner.
Career horseman Nevin Eades is among that community, and has been for almost three decades, despite only just ticking over his 40th birthday.
“I started with horses when I was 13 and liked it straight away,” he said.
“I left school when I was 14 and worked for Eddie Laing, Robbie Laing’s father. I stayed there until I was 21 and then went to work at the abattoirs and took out my own trainer’s licence.
“I trained a few while I was working there, for a few of the workers there and had a little bit of luck.”
Eades left the meat works and concentrated on his chosen path full-time over the last 10 years, earning a reputation as an astute and popular small-team trainer.
“I’ve only got five in work at the moment but there are three to come in at the end of the month and then I’ll be back up to eight which is what I normally have,” he said.
Eades works big hours but reckons he’s been lucky over his time compared to many others.
“The first decent one I had was Call Me Spike and when he was finished Lucola came along and she won a dozen races and then old Rupert won nine races for us,” he said.
“Call Me Syd came along then and won 14 (races) so I’ve always had one there to pay the bills.”
The current stable money-spinner is Call Me Syd’s half brother, Ryobiton, while he has high hopes for young sprinter Stax On Max which has only had two starts.
He said that one of the tricks to training a small team was placing horses wisely but added that at the moment it was hard to avoid the big ticket trainers with their big ticket horses.
“I was watching Donald races on Sky Channel and there was Peter Moody unloading his horses for the day,” he said.
“You can run against them here (Cranbourne) or Mornington or Sandown, but if you drive four hours to the races you’d think you would be pretty safe,” he chuckled.