After steering home 25 winners from her first 240 drives at the provincials, 22-year-old Kyalla horsewoman Tasmyn Potter makes her debut on the big stage in a couple of hours when hops in the cart for her fist metropolitan drive on Outlaw Man in race 1 at Melton.
It’s a fitting start in two ways to what promises to be a glittering career for Potter.
Outlaw Man is trained by her former employer Andy Gath, who was the one who initially identified her talent encouraged her to become a professional driver, which is pretty high praise coming from the multiple group 1 winning trainer who we regard as the best in the countryAnd the horse’s usual driver is Kate Gath, the best female reinsperson in the land, and the best of the all comers too, as she has one again displayed by her dashing drives to win the Nullarbor and the Fremantle Cup in the past fortnight on stable star Catch A Wave.
So they are big boots that young Potter is stepping into tonight, but she wouldn’t be wearing them if the Gath’s don’t think they fit, and you can’t get a much better wrap than that.
I’m sure that the kid would have preferred her first metro drive to have been from off a front draw, but with the Jordan Leedham driven stablemate and likely leader starting from the pole in front of her the inside of the 2nd row gate might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, and you can only imagine how hard the kid’s heart will be pumping when they wheel for home and she hits the lane.
This is it, the night you’ve always dreamed about. You’ve hit the big stage as a pro driver. You’re here, and now’s your time to kick off the first day of the rest of your life with a winner.
We will be cheering you from Port Douglas to Pinjarra and Port Arthur and back to do it too.
Go Tasmyn go!