Taffy Bayly - horse racing in his blood | Taranaki Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Taranaki

STRATFORD owner/trainer Taffy Bayly has horse racing in his blood.

A foundation member of the Stratford Trotting Club, Taffy has owned and trained more pacers than he can remember, and now aged 82, he is still putting horses through their paces.

In 1955, Taffy, then in his 20s, began ‘playing around’ with horses, working for his uncle, Peter Jones, training pacers.

In 1958 the Stratford Trotting Club was born, with Uncle Peter Jones the first president and Taffy there right from the start.

"It was a small club when it started. Somebody found out there was a race day available on the national calendar and a group of interested people was formed.

"There was only one trainer in the Stratford area then, but now that has built up to five licenced trainers and about 15 horses in training.

"The club has always had sound leaders and good committee members," said Taffy.

"Members scraped hard in the early years to build it into a sound financial position.

"The club has always had the one annual meeting. For a time it was in May but wet conditions are not good for racing so we managed to change it to February."

Taffy has been on the committee of the club for 52 years. He is a past president, life member and was awarded a certificate for 50 years of committee service recently.

In 1957 Taffy got his first horse, Van Rip, which he took to the Wellington Trots for a first start. The pacer won its first race, much to Taffy’s delight.

In 1962 Taffy and his wife Hilda purchased the dairy farm on Monmouth Rd, where they have lived for the past 48 years.

He began breaking in a few horses to help with expenses while they built up the farm.

Taffy said he couldn’t count the number of horses he has broken in, owned and trained. He said many of his horses were sold to American buyers.

He hasn’t done a lot of driving; preferring to concentrate on training, but in the past has driven half a dozen winners.

This weekend Taffy’s Flyin Along will be racing. The horse won at last year’s Stratford meet and could be a contender on Sunday.

Taffy bought Flyin Along as a yealing nearly four years ago and it has won four races so far.