When a horse broke in the path of the well-backed Adele Said ($10 into $5.70) soon after the start in Launceston on Friday night most harness racing punters who had invested on the filly were close to tearing up their tickets.
But it's a good thing they didn't because despite losing about 50 metres in the scrimmage Adele Said recovered to go on and score a very impressive win.
After the incident driver Todd Rattray had the three-year-old settled into a strong pace but he was forced to drive her for luck and as it happens the luck presented itself and the filly did the rest.
Adele Said (Well Said-Catz N Ratz) burst clear of the pack in the home straight and went on to score by six metres from Only A Myth with Holly Halo almost three metres astern.
Adele Said recorded a mile rate of 2.03.7 which was good given the circumstances and she ran home her last half-mile (800m) in 61 seconds.
Butler, who spent the early days of his training career at Lachlan near New Norfolk in the Derwent Valley, south-west of Hobart, has long been considered one of Tasmania's most talented horsemen.
He trained Joesashyguy to win the 1999 Tasmanian Derby to etch his names in the record books as one of the youngest to train a Group winner in the state at age 21.
Butler recently relocated to the north of the state where he has set up a training operation at Pipers River about 50km north of Launceston and he plans to expand his training enterprise with the help of his life partner and talented driver Kristy Grant who is the granddaughter of veteran harness trainer Dick Eaves.
Butler and Grant moved into their new residence, formerly owned by prominent harness racing breeders Lyndon and Gail Menegon, last month and he expects to quickly build up the number of stable tenants.
"We've been on the property for about three weeks and Adele said was our first starter training from our new property and Jillibi Gigi ran second later in the night so it's a fairly good start," Butler said.
"We have eight horses in work so hopefully in another month or so we'll be able to take a team of four or five to the races."
Peter Staples