THEY say patience is a virtue and it's something Chris Cain has in spades.
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His persistence finally paid off when Travelnpastyou recorded a breakthrough win in the NR 55 to 65 pace at Echuca last week.
The win was the Pyramid Hill hobby trainer's first ever harness racing success.
Cain has held a trainer's licence since 2009 and had his first starter in 2011.
In the years since, his four horses Barnetts Best, Tobias James, Thunder Buddies and Travelnpastyou had combined for 53 starts for no wins and five placings.
That was until last week when the eight-year-old son of Blissful Hall, with young Bendigo driver Jayden Brewin in the sulky, broke through for his first win in eight starts for Cain.
Watching Travelnpastyou cross the line in front, 2.8m ahead of Bettor Star, the 43-year-old could not disguise his delight at scoring his first win as a trainer.
"I've owned a couple of gallopers that have won before, but I'd never been at the track when that happened, so getting the first win as a trainer was very exciting,"
"I was fortunate to have my wife (Rachel) and kids (Fletcher, 10, and Harry, 7) on-course, so they had a ball.
"The kids were the most excited because when the horse runs a place, they get an ice-cream on the way home.
"We only ever have the one horse in work, it's only really a hobby that we have taken on after getting too old for football and with cricket on the wane, so I've needed to find something else to do.
"We've poked around with a few - we've only had four horses that we've taken to the races, he just happened to be the first winner."
No slouch, Travelnpastyou, who was formerly trained by Charlton's Greg Norman, and before that Scott Stewart and David Miles, has won seven races and been placed nine times in 47 starts.
Three of those wins have been at Echuca and three others at Shepparton.
On the advice of Brewin, who had driven Travelnpastyou in his previous two starts at Melton and Bendigo, Cain headed to Echuca confident the gelding could sneak a place.
"He'd been running well ... I wouldn't say without luck, but he had been going better than people had been giving him credit for," he said.
"I've been around long enough to know that you never assume something is going to happen, but I was hoping with a bit of luck he might snare a place.
"Young Jayden was pretty confident a win wasn't far away after he first drove him for us.
"I was blown away with how much homework Jayden had done when he first jumped on - he pretty much predicted what would happen and it happened to a tee."
Cain, the son of the late legendary sport and racing journalist Bob Cain and originally from Kilmore, ventured to Pyramid Hill in 2004 to play football close to where his mother grew up at Mologa.
He quickly met Rachel - a school teacher - with the couple going on to establish a property on the outskirts of town.
They have been dabbling on and off with horses ever since.
"We have a 940m track out in the front paddock, which seems to do the trick," Cain said.
Travelnpastyou will line up in this Sunday's Birchip Pacing Cup (2150m) and will be driven by Sam Barker.
As with each start, Cain said he was just hoping for a bit more improvement from the horse.
"It might be hard to beat Greg Norman's horse (Cee Cee In America), but as long as he comes back in one piece we'll be happy.," he said.
"We have fun no matter where he finishes. We're pretty lucky, we have a great group of friends who are all in the ownership, so we just want to have a bit of fun with him.
"When we got him from Greg (Norman), he was adamant he had a win or two left in him, so hopefully we can keep him up and going."
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