BENDIGO trainer Bob Donat and wife Bronwyn have put a tough year behind them to share in the spoils at the Bendigo Trainers' Association horse of the year awards.
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The couple snared the best three-year-old award with their highly promising gelding Tatunka.
A debutante winner at Kyneton back in February, Tatunka is one of just three horses in Donat's stable, two of whom are owned by the couple.
He branded the award win as 'unexpected' and even admitted to barracking for a win for Lady Solly, the nominee of fellow trainer Erin Maher, who he described as 'one of the hardest working trainers in Bendigo'.
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A popular and emotional award win put a testing 12 months behind the Donats in which Bronwyn continued her battle against breast cancer and Bob was banged up in a horse mishap.
"We've had a bit of a bad run for a while, so it was good to get a bit of luck going our way," Donat said.
After 12 months of chemotherapy and radiation, Bob said it was still 'early days' for Bronwyn, but the couple are nothing but positive for the future.
They refer to Tatunka as their 'miracle baby'.
"I raised his mother (Paramytha), and before her I raised her mum (Black Pepper) ... I won six with the grandmother, six with Tatunka's mother and then when she had her first foal, she lost the foal and ripped herself open," he said.
"We stitched her up and put her out in the paddock for two years and we thought we might try and get her in foal again and that's when we had Tatunka.
"When she foaled over in Benalla, she got through it pretty good, so we re-served her and that's how we got (his brother) Kwahadi."
Both Tatunka, whose seven starts have produced one win and three seconds, including last start at Bendigo earlier this month, and Kwahadi will line-up at Bendigo on Friday.
Donat revealed he had knocked back a substantial offer from Hong Kong to keep the promising Tatunka in Bendigo.
"They offered a lot of money and we said no, and then they offered to fly us to Hong Kong to watch him race, and I said no again," he said.
"When you get to my age, and I'm 68, money isn't everything.
"If you'd seen Bronwyn when he won his first start you would have been pretty happy to say we're holding on to him.
"I think we've got $100,000 or something to catch up to the medical bills, but we've already got $40,000 back.
"It's never about the money - we've only ever trained as a hobby all our lives. I've never trained horses for a living, it's too hard, added Donat, who is a bricklayer by trade, and began his training career in Cohuna.
Tatunka's awards rivals in three-year-old category included Miss Solly, the Sean Mott-trained In Her Honour, Queen Guinevere (Shane Fliedner) and Septzento (Josh Julius).
If you'd seen Bronwyn when he won his first start you would have been pretty happy to say we're holding on to him.
- Bob Donat
His award win completed a sentimental treble for the Donats on Saturday.
Bron's beloved AFL Blues notched up another impressive win over St Kilda, but by far the highlight was the birth of grand-daughter Jonie Joy, to daughter Courtney and her husband Tim, and a sister for Jasper.
Meanwhile, couple's other horse, Red Cracker - an impressive last start winner at Echuca, will head to Swan Hill on Monday for 1600m benchmark 58.
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