By David Nagel
The training partnership of Trent Busuttin-Natalie Young walked away as the big winner from the Cranbourne Racing Industry Awards night held at the Cranbourne Turf Club on Saturday.
Busuttin-Young took home the coveted Trainer of the Year award, with stable-star Sierra Sue winning Horse of the Year and Glint Of Hope being named Rising Star.
Racing as a five-year-old mare during the 2021/22 racing season, Sierra Sue won twice at Group-1 level and also took out the Group-2 P.B. Lawrence Stakes.
All of her group wins were over 1400 metres with her biggest successes coming in the Rupert Clarke and Futurity Stakes at Caulfield.
Sierra Sue has won nine of her 24 starts and accumulated more than $1.7million in prizemoney.
Sierra Sue defeated a crack field in the Cranbourne Horse of the Year category, with Forgot You, Halvorsen, I’m Thunderstruck, Lombardo and Marabi all in contention for the award.
As a three-year-old filly, Glint Of Hope progressed from a Pakenham maiden win in early March this year to winning the $500,000 Group-1 Australasian Oaks (2000m).
The now four-year-old mare – Deep Impact/Sacred Sight – defeated a group of potential stars to take out the Rising Star.
Illation, Jacquinot, Lofty Strike, Passive Aggressive, Pinstriped and Prix De Turn are all sure to be prominent throughout the Spring.
Busuttin-Young also took out the training premiership for races run at Cranbourne, winning 15 races for the season, with Craig Newitt (15 wins) winning the jockey’s premiership and Sheridan Clarke (3 wins) taking home the apprentices trophy.
Several Trainer Achievement Awards were also presented on the night.
Peter Foster was named Picnic Trainer of the Year, while Tom Nikolic was recognised for his first professional win with Express Master.
Smiley Chan, Nathan Dunn and Ken and Kasey Keys were also presented with awards, for trainers with less than 50, 100 and 200 starts respectively.
Chan trained five from 48 starts, Dunn 11 from 64, while the Keys’ team trained 23 from 198 starts.
Rachel Armes – who works for the Keys’ stable – won the Employee of the Year Award.
The next meeting at Cranbourne takes place on Wednesday 28 September, beginning the build up to the Cranbourne Cup meeting on Saturday 12 November.
