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By Greg Prichard

Hobby trainer Carmen Murnane was out buying a new Cronulla Sharks jersey on Monday as a present to herself following her win with Finance Partner at the Taree race meeting on Saturday.

“I’m at the shopping centre right now,” Murnane said when we called.

“I’m a Sharks fan and they’re going great at the moment, so I’m treating myself to a new jumper off the back of Finance Partner’s win.”

Finance Partner (Jon Grisedale) lands the prize at Taree. Image by Trackside Photography

The Sharks are on top of the NRL table after their 42-6 flogging of North Queensland on Sunday and Murnane was already on a high after Finance Partner easily won the Argus Class 1 Handicap over 1412m a day earlier.

“I had him in on Thursday at Tuncurry and I thought, ‘Do I go to Tuncurry and maybe run fourth and get around $1300 or do I go to Taree where he’s a decent chance of winning and maybe get $8000?’” she said.

“I chose the second option.

"There are never any guarantees, of course, you’ve just got to do your best when you’re making decisions about where to place your horses. But it worked out very well this time.”

Jockey Jon Grisedale rode Finance Partner perfectly, hunting him up early to make sure he was well placed in the run but opting out of the battle for the lead with a couple of other horses whose riders were keen to go forward.

Grisedale kept the four-year-old gelding out of trouble in third place and then stoked him up to challenge for the lead rounding the home turn. Finance Partner gapped his rivals in the straight to win by 2.56 lengths as a $7 chance.

Murnane trains at Gosford and has three horses in her stable. One of her other horses, Khittamy, also raced at Taree and finished fourth in the Bakewell Haulage Benchmark 50 Handicap over 1007m.

“I work another job, so I just have time for three as a hobby,” she said.

“I’ve always held a full-time job apart from training. I didn’t want to be a struggling trainer, so I looked for a balance and I’m heaps happy this way.

“I’ve had my training licence for about 15 years. I spent 11 years working for John Singleton at Strawberry Hills Stud while I was training and I’ve been gone from there for two years now.

“John used to give me a few of his slow ones which were nice ones for me and ended up winning quite a few races. It was good. I now work for another trainer at Gosford, Greg McFarlane, so I’ve still got that balance going.

“It’s exciting to get a winner. If I can get the occasional win and they get enough placings on top of that they can usually pay their own way.”

Murnane said she paid $1750 for Finance Partner about 12 months ago. The horse has now won $27,000 in prizemoney under her care.

“I own just about all of Finance Partner and one of my best friends has a five per cent share,” she said. “I majority own all of my horses and a few other owners have small shares here and there.

“I find that’s the best way for me. I can keep the majority of the prizemoney and it’s just super easy. If I want to scratch, I’ll scratch, and I don’t have to explain the decision to a large group of owners.

“Everyone’s good that I work with, the few little owners that I have are all fine.

“Finance Partner had three starts in Victoria before I bought him. Danny O’Brien was training him, so I spoke to Dan and told him I’m a hobby trainer and I just wanted a sensible, sound horse - something to play with.

“I was told the horse would suit me, so I got him online for $1750 and he’s been awesome. He’s sound and great to deal with. I’ve only had him for a year and he’s had two wins and run a few placings.

“Now I’ll look for another suitable race for him coming up soon.”