Tom Pay drives Camstar Road to victory at Bathurst Harness Racing Club

Trainer/driver Tom Pay returned to Bathurst after a campaign in Queensland, and 10 days later found himself in the winner's circle at his local track with horse Camstar Road.

Pay - who calls Dubbo home and used to work in the industry full-time but now only competes as a hobby - also trains the eight-year-old gelding, and was very pleased with the result.

READ ALSO:

While the win didn't come as a complete surprise, with Pay confident his horse was a chance given the right run, nothing beats the feeling of a plan coming to fruition.

"He's a bloody nice horse," Pay said, laughing.

"I thought he would be in the finish with the right run, and when they burnt early that first quarter and I was able to get a good sit in the one-one, I thought he'd be in the finish from there.

"Everything worked out well."

Staying out of the early speed battle, Pay was able to manoeuvre Camstar Road into the favourable one-out-one-back position, landing him close enough if good enough.

Able to follow a helmet until 300 metres from home, Pay said "let's go" and the Million Dollar Cam gelding rounded up the front-runners to win by a 3.6-metre margin over the Ashlee Grives-trained and driven Meraki - daughter of Group 1 winning Bathurst mare Ameretto.

It was Camstar Road's 10th career win, and second in the care of Pay since being purchased by the Ya Racin' Syndicate around two months ago.

"I have liked him for quite a while," he said.

"I liked the way that he's raced and when he was down Riverina way earlier in his career and I think he won five out of 12.

"Since then he'd dropped in grade. I thought he was on a bit of a low mark and he'd do a job in the grade he's in at Bathurst."

After a third and a win at his first two runs for the new stable, Pay took the gelding to Queensland with him where he had three starts for two thirds and an unlucky sixth placing.

Despite not having a huge amount of luck with Camstar Road up north, Pay still managed to find himself in the winner's circle while in the sunshine state when girlfriend and harness racing driver Phoebe Betts was sidelined for two weeks.

During Betts' absence, Pay took the reigns and secured three wins over two days during their last week in Queensland.

"It was good when Phoebe was suspended, I got all the good drives," Pay said, laughing.

"I drove three winners in two days, so probably more winners than I've driven here [in Bathurst] in the last two years."

Now a support worker in the disability sector, Pay doesn't see the race track as much as he used to when working the Mat Rue stable, but the taste of a victory has brought back the bug and Pay is hoping his gelding continues on the road to success.

"I probably haven't had a horse as consistent as this fella I've got racing now," he said.

"I'll just keep racing him and hopefully he keeps picking up money for me."

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.