Young Ellen reins supreme
By Ralee Tuckerman
1 April 2012 - Ellen Tormey could hardly believe the identity of the caller on the other end of the phone.
Aged just 11, the Charlton harness racing enthusiast had written to Australia’s premier female reinswoman and trainer Kerryn Manning, asking if there was any chance of visiting he. Great Western stables in the school holidays to have a look around
“I used to watch her on TV when dad had the races on” Ellen says of sending a letter to her sporting role model. “Because she was a female, I used to take notice and that was when I really started to become interested in harness racing. “Dad said she probably wouldn’t have time to write back, but one day she rang me up and invited me down there.” It was the beginning of a mentoring relationship that has developed into friendship as well. Manning took young Ellen under her wing and the central Victorian spent many holidays during her teenage years working alongside her idol and learning her craft.
With more than 3000 victories under her belt, Manning is the world record holder for career wins by a female reinswoman and Ellen says she’s a handy person to have in your camp. “Not only as a driver, she’s a great trainer as well and its been a privilege to learn a lot off her- it has really given me a good foundation.” Ellen is following Mannging’s footsteps in more ways than one. She recently represented Victoria in the Australasian Young Drivers Championship in Perth and took out the seven-race series- a feet her good friend achieved in 2001. The 21-year-old is the state’s leading concession driver this season with 35 wins and 91 placings from 340-odd starts, after also topping the concession premiership table in 2012-11. Being crowned Australasia’s champion young driver was a huge honour and a far cry from the previous year in New Zealand, when Ellen took the wooden spoon in her series Debut. But she says the result of the event often comes down to some old fashion luck – like which horses you get drawn to drive. “In New Zealand, I had some bad horses, but it was a lot different style to driving over here and I probably didn’t drive the horses the way they should have been driven” she says. “But I had an amazing trip and still keep in contact with a lot of the people on it. This year, I had better horses and a lot of luck too, but I never really led on any of them or just sat outside the leader and I was always half-way along, never ran last.” Ellen had a one-point lead going into the final heat on March2 and managed to steer $29 long-shot Our Gent to second to clinch the title. Despite the acclaim, she rates her wind behind the Glenn Douglas- trained Valiant Lustre in the Tiffany Murray Memorial race at Echuca less than 24 hours later as an even bigger thrill. Tiffany who died last year aged 22 after bravely battling brain cancer, was a long time friend and Ellen said the race in honour of the young mum was very close to her heart. “She lived across the road from me and I driver with her fiancé, Leigh Sutton. She was just a gorgeous person and that win was very special,” Ellen says, adding that seeing her friend fight for her life helped put everything else happening around her into perspective. “If I got suspended at the start of my career I would have thought that it was the end of the world, but she has made me appreciate the good things so much more. “You whinge about little things in life but she went through the toughest things and always still had a smile on her face. It makes you feel so selfish sometimes.” Ellen has always been surrounded by harness racing- father John, trains horses in Charlton and Boyfriend Scott Dyer is also a reinsman. Even though she grew up loving everything about horses, she was not exactly groomed for a career in the industry from infancy. “Actually dad wouldn’t let me get a pony,” she says recalling the lengths she went to as a lass to get into the saddle. “When I was six or seven, dad had a horse that wasn’t the quietest. Nanna was looking after us one day and I decided to get this horse and tie it up to the electric fence – I don’t know how I managed – then I got about 10 buckets and jumped on the back of it. “I was always game from a young age! ”At about 10 Ellen took matters into her own hands and gamely asked a neighbour if she could have his old pony in the paddock next door. “He gave her to me that same day and it was only about six months later that I started doing the pony trots ob her and that was the first time I drove a pony.” Seeing how keen his daughter was, John Tormey soon let her jog one of his pacers and before too long she was doing fast work for Kerryn Manning. As soon as she turned 15m, Ellen got her trial licence and had a win on Franco Whiz, trained by her father, at just her second start. A year later, she obtained her race licence and drove Franco Whiz to victory within a week of her first official start. From then on, she laughs, her driving career went downhill for a while. “I remember the feeling of winning – it was sensational” she says. “but things got tougher from there. The first couple of times I sat outside the leader and I could have done more things, but it was because I was on the best horse in the race that I won. “But you’re not always going to be on the best horse and you’ve got to learn to take short cuts and make your own decisions, which I struggled with early on. “Now I have been driving for five years, I know that you have got to learn to use your initiative.” As a novice, Ellen covers thousands of kilometres across the state each year chasing drivers that will allow her to keep on improving her trade. She tells of the time where she drove the first two races at a day meeting in Cranbourne, then spent seven hours in her car travelling to Mildura, where she was booked for the final three events on the card. “Some people say I’m silly going to Mildura for a couple of races, but I guess if you don’t work hard, you won’t get the rewards. “If you look after people who give you a drive on day, hopefully they will look after you in return.” Despite her success, Ellen says her driving future is uncertain. At present, she is an attractive option for trainers who can drop their horses class if they engage a concession driver like herself. But as she nears the concession threshold of 40 wins a season, she wonders whether she will continue go get work after her claim. “I might not get any drives so I’m being realistic and have something to fall back on,” the third year business student at La Trobe University Bendigo says. “I’d love it to work out, but unfortunately not everyone goes on after they lose their claim.” She hopes to pick up a few more drives for her dad when that time comes, and is keen to get behind a couple of horses she has together with her boyfriend Scott. “It doesn’t worry me too much because it will allow me on concentrate on uni a bit more until this year is over. “Though I am passing, this just doesn’t feel like what I want to do,” she says of her course. “Driving feels so easy to me and I know what I am doing – I just wish all my exams were on horses because I would pass with flying colours!” Being female in a male dominated sporting environment is no longer an issue, Ellen says, with the like of Manning, Jodi Quinlan, Amanda Turnbull and Lola Weidemann all well up the list on state driving premiership tables. She has been given the most starts of any Victorian concession driver in each of the past two seasons, so her gender is clearly not working against her and she is grateful to those who have been willing to give her a chance. She has recently been working a day or two at the stables of Bendigo brothers Glenn and Daryl Douglas and is also chasing a win with In the Name of Art, trained by her father, which is the first racehorse she has had a share in. Another of her dad’s horses she owes much to is stable star Mister Castleton, which gave Ellen her first group race win when she was 18.“He’s pretty much made every group race, the Breeder’s Crown, made the Vic crown final, so I’ve got to drive in a lot of Group One races. “He’s given me 12 or so wins, won over $100,000 is stakes and recently was the Inter Dominion heats and made the Consolation final. “He’s a very special horse and helped my career a lot.” Away from racing, Ellen enjoys playing netball for Charlton, which gives her the chance to return home and catch up with friends and family, including mum Alison, sister Maddy, 18 and brother Joe, 15. She also enjoys walks around Strathdale with Scott and their little Jack Russell named Scully. Ellen’s ambition is to eventually train some winners of her own. She spent time working for Karryn Manning after finishing secondary school and deferring uni for a year, but she found herself getting worn out and run down. “I thought then I probably can’t do this all my life,” she says “When you get too busy, you might start to dislike the horses and I never want to do that. “I might end up getting a job and training horses as a hobby and driving every now and then, that would be great, but I definitely would love to stay involved. “Harness racing is a game where you can get disappointed and things can easily go wrong. So I try not to think too far ahead and keep my head on straight.
“I always try to be as positive as I can. I think when you are positive and confident that seems to be when you drive better.”
1 April 2012 - Ellen Tormey could hardly believe the identity of the caller on the other end of the phone.
Aged just 11, the Charlton harness racing enthusiast had written to Australia’s premier female reinswoman and trainer Kerryn Manning, asking if there was any chance of visiting he. Great Western stables in the school holidays to have a look around
“I used to watch her on TV when dad had the races on” Ellen says of sending a letter to her sporting role model. “Because she was a female, I used to take notice and that was when I really started to become interested in harness racing. “Dad said she probably wouldn’t have time to write back, but one day she rang me up and invited me down there.” It was the beginning of a mentoring relationship that has developed into friendship as well. Manning took young Ellen under her wing and the central Victorian spent many holidays during her teenage years working alongside her idol and learning her craft.
With more than 3000 victories under her belt, Manning is the world record holder for career wins by a female reinswoman and Ellen says she’s a handy person to have in your camp. “Not only as a driver, she’s a great trainer as well and its been a privilege to learn a lot off her- it has really given me a good foundation.” Ellen is following Mannging’s footsteps in more ways than one. She recently represented Victoria in the Australasian Young Drivers Championship in Perth and took out the seven-race series- a feet her good friend achieved in 2001. The 21-year-old is the state’s leading concession driver this season with 35 wins and 91 placings from 340-odd starts, after also topping the concession premiership table in 2012-11. Being crowned Australasia’s champion young driver was a huge honour and a far cry from the previous year in New Zealand, when Ellen took the wooden spoon in her series Debut. But she says the result of the event often comes down to some old fashion luck – like which horses you get drawn to drive. “In New Zealand, I had some bad horses, but it was a lot different style to driving over here and I probably didn’t drive the horses the way they should have been driven” she says. “But I had an amazing trip and still keep in contact with a lot of the people on it. This year, I had better horses and a lot of luck too, but I never really led on any of them or just sat outside the leader and I was always half-way along, never ran last.” Ellen had a one-point lead going into the final heat on March2 and managed to steer $29 long-shot Our Gent to second to clinch the title. Despite the acclaim, she rates her wind behind the Glenn Douglas- trained Valiant Lustre in the Tiffany Murray Memorial race at Echuca less than 24 hours later as an even bigger thrill. Tiffany who died last year aged 22 after bravely battling brain cancer, was a long time friend and Ellen said the race in honour of the young mum was very close to her heart. “She lived across the road from me and I driver with her fiancé, Leigh Sutton. She was just a gorgeous person and that win was very special,” Ellen says, adding that seeing her friend fight for her life helped put everything else happening around her into perspective. “If I got suspended at the start of my career I would have thought that it was the end of the world, but she has made me appreciate the good things so much more. “You whinge about little things in life but she went through the toughest things and always still had a smile on her face. It makes you feel so selfish sometimes.” Ellen has always been surrounded by harness racing- father John, trains horses in Charlton and Boyfriend Scott Dyer is also a reinsman. Even though she grew up loving everything about horses, she was not exactly groomed for a career in the industry from infancy. “Actually dad wouldn’t let me get a pony,” she says recalling the lengths she went to as a lass to get into the saddle. “When I was six or seven, dad had a horse that wasn’t the quietest. Nanna was looking after us one day and I decided to get this horse and tie it up to the electric fence – I don’t know how I managed – then I got about 10 buckets and jumped on the back of it. “I was always game from a young age! ”At about 10 Ellen took matters into her own hands and gamely asked a neighbour if she could have his old pony in the paddock next door. “He gave her to me that same day and it was only about six months later that I started doing the pony trots ob her and that was the first time I drove a pony.” Seeing how keen his daughter was, John Tormey soon let her jog one of his pacers and before too long she was doing fast work for Kerryn Manning. As soon as she turned 15m, Ellen got her trial licence and had a win on Franco Whiz, trained by her father, at just her second start. A year later, she obtained her race licence and drove Franco Whiz to victory within a week of her first official start. From then on, she laughs, her driving career went downhill for a while. “I remember the feeling of winning – it was sensational” she says. “but things got tougher from there. The first couple of times I sat outside the leader and I could have done more things, but it was because I was on the best horse in the race that I won. “But you’re not always going to be on the best horse and you’ve got to learn to take short cuts and make your own decisions, which I struggled with early on. “Now I have been driving for five years, I know that you have got to learn to use your initiative.” As a novice, Ellen covers thousands of kilometres across the state each year chasing drivers that will allow her to keep on improving her trade. She tells of the time where she drove the first two races at a day meeting in Cranbourne, then spent seven hours in her car travelling to Mildura, where she was booked for the final three events on the card. “Some people say I’m silly going to Mildura for a couple of races, but I guess if you don’t work hard, you won’t get the rewards. “If you look after people who give you a drive on day, hopefully they will look after you in return.” Despite her success, Ellen says her driving future is uncertain. At present, she is an attractive option for trainers who can drop their horses class if they engage a concession driver like herself. But as she nears the concession threshold of 40 wins a season, she wonders whether she will continue go get work after her claim. “I might not get any drives so I’m being realistic and have something to fall back on,” the third year business student at La Trobe University Bendigo says. “I’d love it to work out, but unfortunately not everyone goes on after they lose their claim.” She hopes to pick up a few more drives for her dad when that time comes, and is keen to get behind a couple of horses she has together with her boyfriend Scott. “It doesn’t worry me too much because it will allow me on concentrate on uni a bit more until this year is over. “Though I am passing, this just doesn’t feel like what I want to do,” she says of her course. “Driving feels so easy to me and I know what I am doing – I just wish all my exams were on horses because I would pass with flying colours!” Being female in a male dominated sporting environment is no longer an issue, Ellen says, with the like of Manning, Jodi Quinlan, Amanda Turnbull and Lola Weidemann all well up the list on state driving premiership tables. She has been given the most starts of any Victorian concession driver in each of the past two seasons, so her gender is clearly not working against her and she is grateful to those who have been willing to give her a chance. She has recently been working a day or two at the stables of Bendigo brothers Glenn and Daryl Douglas and is also chasing a win with In the Name of Art, trained by her father, which is the first racehorse she has had a share in. Another of her dad’s horses she owes much to is stable star Mister Castleton, which gave Ellen her first group race win when she was 18.“He’s pretty much made every group race, the Breeder’s Crown, made the Vic crown final, so I’ve got to drive in a lot of Group One races. “He’s given me 12 or so wins, won over $100,000 is stakes and recently was the Inter Dominion heats and made the Consolation final. “He’s a very special horse and helped my career a lot.” Away from racing, Ellen enjoys playing netball for Charlton, which gives her the chance to return home and catch up with friends and family, including mum Alison, sister Maddy, 18 and brother Joe, 15. She also enjoys walks around Strathdale with Scott and their little Jack Russell named Scully. Ellen’s ambition is to eventually train some winners of her own. She spent time working for Karryn Manning after finishing secondary school and deferring uni for a year, but she found herself getting worn out and run down. “I thought then I probably can’t do this all my life,” she says “When you get too busy, you might start to dislike the horses and I never want to do that. “I might end up getting a job and training horses as a hobby and driving every now and then, that would be great, but I definitely would love to stay involved. “Harness racing is a game where you can get disappointed and things can easily go wrong. So I try not to think too far ahead and keep my head on straight.
“I always try to be as positive as I can. I think when you are positive and confident that seems to be when you drive better.”
Ellen Tormey on the presentation dias after winning the Australasian Young Drivers Championship in Perth 2012
