Sutton setting his sights on first Invitation Championship

Shepparton reinsman Leigh Sutton is looking forward to driving for some different stables at Horsham on Monday.

He’s being given the opportunity to branch out in the Decron Horse Care Noel Smith Memorial Invitation Drivers Championship.

This will be Sutton’s first time in the series, first run in 1990 and this year extended from the usual four races to five on a nine-event program.

“It’s a pleasure to get an invitation,” Sutton said.

“It’s nice to get a chance to drive for people you’ve never driven for.”

He’s drawn horses for trainers Courtney Slater, Julie Douglas, Ken Taylor, David Kemp and Marg Lee.

In addition to the championship, which is being contested by 10 Victorian-based drivers, Sutton has picked up another drive for Slater – giving him six engagements.

Sutton rarely has such big books of drives these days, having chosen to trim back on the sort of travelling he did in particular when based in New South Wales for a decade.

“That took a toll.”

He said he was no longer interested in spending long hours in a car and tended to “pick and choose” where he went.

Sutton said enjoyment was a major priority for him and he was achieving this working and driving for the Lemnos stable of Russell Jack, and with his partner Maddie Bond preparing just the one horse.

One pacer he is prepared to hit the road for though is the Emma Stewart-trained Like A Wildfire with which earlier this season he won the Terang Pacing Cup.

His relationship with Like A Wildfire is well documented and it is a special moment for Sutton each time he gets in the cart behind the seven-year-old.

Sutton will join elite company in the Horsham invitation championship on Monday, with Chris Alford, Kerryn Manning, Anthony Butt, Kate Gath, Jodi Quinlan, Jason Lee, James Herbertson, Jack Laugher and Zac Phillips.

Alford, Manning, Quinlan, Gath and Lee are past winners.

Alford first took out the series in 1994 and has gone on to repeat the dose in 2011 and 2017.

Quinlan and Manning each won in 2005, Gath in 2020 and Lee last year.

The series will be staged over races 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 – leading into the group 2 $30,000 Speeding Spur @ Woodlands Horsham Trotters’ Cup, 2700m.

The cup features country cups specialist Well Defined, group 1 winners Always Ready and Havehorsewilltravel, and Inter Dominion heat winner and finalist The Penny Drops. Havehorsewilltravel is the backmarker on 30m.

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