Toni Schofield’s achievement in winning six races between two venues on May 6th gives her the Pryde’s Award hands down. The Barcaldine trainer sent husband Nathan to Clermont with four horses three of which greeted the judge - Hezagem (Chris McIver), Cozhecancan (Emma Bell) and Mr. Cruise (Emma Bell).
Toni Schofield is the May 2023 Pryde's award winner - courtesy Roxy Weston - RLR Photography.
Toni saddled up five horses at Longreach more than 400 kms away, and also notched a treble with Phondle, Grand Palazzo and Hallside Hot Stuff. All three were ridden by Matthew Grey. She struck a quinella when Jerry Zanda ran second in Grand Palazzo’s race. Toni and Nathan communicated by phone throughout the day, both in disbelief as the winners continued to flow. The significance of the feat is best reflected in the fact that those six winners came from an eleven horse team.
Toni tried her hand as a jockey in the early 2000’s and rode twenty four winners in three years under her maiden name of Toni Hall. When weight issues intervened she quickly acquired a trainer’s licence and began her new career at Rockhampton. Toni relocated to the Central West after a short time and settled into the grind of establishing herself as a commercial trainer. “It was a real struggle to get going,” she said. “In the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons I didn’t train six winners in the whole year. To win six in a day last month is hard to get the head around.”
With increased interest from owners and a better class of horse coming into the stable, the Schofield operation has turned the corner. Only a few weeks before her stunning dual track performance, Toni came up with a winning treble at a Longreach meeting. Pryde’s EasiFeed would like to acknowledge a fine training effort on May 6th by presenting Toni Schofield with twelve complimentary bags of its tried and tested “EasiPerformance”.
Hallside Hot Stuff completes the Longreach treble for Toni and jockey Matt Gray - courtesy Roxy Weston - RLR Photography.
(Banner image - Grand Palazzo (Matthew Gray) - One of Toni's three Longreach winners.)
