By David Nagel
Pakenham trainer Ebony Tucker has an eight-year-old best friend that is helping her recover from a recent fall that left her with a ruptured spleen and bleeding on the lungs.
That eight-year-old best mate is her stable favourite Full of Theories, who put a pained smile on the face of his trainer by winning two races on his favourite synthetic surface at Pakenham last week.
Tucker had her horror fall on Monday, 9 August, when she took a tumble from a new acquisition to her stable which resulted in a rushed visit to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Tucker, pardon the pun, is now tucked up at her home in Warragul, receiving some tender love and care from her family and friends.
“I’m feeling pretty ordinary, but I’ve got friends looking after me and dropping food off and I’m just trying to rest up,” Tucker told Racing.com.
“I’ll have six weeks out of the saddle, so I’m assuming I’ll be up and about in the next week or so and be able to get involved again, but, yeah, at the moment it’s just bed rest.”
Tucker and Full of Theories share a special resilience…one in life, and the other on the track.
Not only has Tucker had to cope with her recent fall, but she also had to fight off a cancer scare through a worldwide pandemic called Covid.
Being involved in the racing industry, and having the help of some special friends, has helped her stay strong through some difficult times.
“With the racing we’re so fortunate that we can get out and life sort of goes on as normal,” she said.
“It hasn’t really affected that side of things too much, but going through the cancer stuff was a bit difficult because I couldn’t really have family around me.
“I was just fortunate to have some very good friends, with Craig and Christie Blackshaw, and John (Pratt), they’ve been able to help me out as well.
“We all work together, so that wasn’t a huge issue with Covid and that sort of thing. Yeah, it was pretty rough, but there’s always someone out there who’s worse off.”
Tucker, herself, is relatively inexperienced and still learning her craft in the thoroughbred ranks, but knows her way around horses, after a promising equestrian career that reached its pinnacle when she represented Australia in Trans-Tasman competition at Berrima, New South Wales.
She also played a key role in preparing and training All Luck, who would eventually move on and win a silver medal in equestrian at the Olympics.
“They’re all horses, but it’s a completely different discipline,” Tucker explained to the Gazette.
“I sort of fell into thoroughbred training a few years back now but never really had any intention to do so. But it’s a great environment at Pakenham. We get down there three or four days a week and ride my own trackwork.”
She talks in hushed tones about Full of Theories that would suggest they almost best mates.
“He’s amazing, he’s had his issues over the years but every trainer will tell you they have a once-in-a lifetime horse, and he’s it for me,” she said.
“He’s been so good to me, not just from a training point of view but he’s just the best horse to be around.
“He qualified for the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final on Oaks Day in 2018 and even though things didn’t pan out that was a great experience to share.
“He will always be the stable favourite, no one can take that off him.”
Full of Theories, and jockey Daniel Stackhouse, began to put a smile on the face of Tucker when they scored a tough win in the $25,000 BenchMark 58 Handicap (1600m) on Monday last week.
Post-race, Stackhouse was quick to point out that Full of Theories had done most of the work in making her bed-ridden and much-loved trainer feel proud.
“Ebony’s not very well at the moment, so thoughts go out to her, and that was for her,” Stackhouse said.
“This horse has been really good to her, and to me, I’ve won a few on him, but today I was a bit of a passenger, he just towed me into the race and was never going to get beat.
“Our plan was to be positive. He jumped really well and he travelled really well throughout the whole run.
“He just builds from the 600, that’s where he wins his races. He’s got a high cruising speed and he gets to that speed and maintains it and today he fought quite hard and did it easy in the end.”
After just a three-day rest, Stackhouse and Full of Theories were reunited at Pakenham on Friday, this time taking out the $35,000 BenchMark 64 Handicap over the same mile journey of 1600 metres.
Stackhouse gave the son of Danesis/Jubilant Spirit a gun-run throughout, camped behind Craig Newitt on the race-leader El Guerrouj. Newitt and El Guerrouj peeled one of the fence at the 400-metre mark giving Full of Theories a saloon passage on the rails.
Full of Theories proved too strong in the run to the line, winning his ninth race and ticking his career earnings past quarter-of-a-million dollars.
Stackhouse reiterated his message to Tucker after his second win on her stable star in the space of four days.
“Ebony does a great job with her horses, it’s a shame what’s been happening with her at the moment, but it’s great to reward her with a couple of winners this week,” Stackhouse said.
“Especially with this horse, he seems to love the synthetic.
“He pulled up really well from Monday and this is the last synthetic meeting for the season, so it would have been stupid not to back him up.”
Stackhouse said the race could not have panned out any better.
“The race worked out perfect for him, Craig (Newitt) set a nice tempo in front and then kicked up from the 600, that suited him going at a nice solid tempo, and then he came off the fence for me and I was able to get up inside him.
“To my horses’ credit he fought really hard to the line.”
The Pakenham track, which has been the focus of a busy winter, will now have a six-week break from racing before the night-racing season begins on Caulfield Cup eve…Friday, 15 October.
This year’s $300,000 Pakenham Cup (2500m) is put down for Saturday, 4 December.
