Emily Suvaljko on board Rocknroll Train at Kellerberrin Photo by Photography by Jodie Hallows
A fall last year saw Emily Suvaljko on the sidelines for many months, and even on return it took her a little while to get her groove back, but on Sunday, June 2 at Kellerberrin that all would have been a distant memory when she drove five of the seven winners on the day, highlighting her as one of WA’s best drivers going around.
A first for Suvaljko, she was hopeful for a great day up at Kellerberrin but did mention that at these country tracks you can be on favourites all day and still not win.
“I went into the meeting fairly confident; it helped Dad not being there, he usually drives all the winners, but I was fairly confident, and I knew I had a fair few favourites, but I guess you go to a place like Kellerberrin and favourites don’t mean anything, it could mean you could have the worst day you’ve ever had,
“I was fairly confident with most of Lang’s, and I thought the one in the last would get the job done, but it was probably the one that made me work the hardest for it.”
The fall last year knocked Suvaljkos confidence a fair bit, but after working hard to get back to her best, she’s currently feeling quite confident, but Friday night at Gloucester Park gave her quite the scare when Justlike Turbo galloped in front of her horse Gold Horseshoe with Emily saying, “I was sure it was going down, and I was going down with it.”
Although it frightened her at the time, the shake up didn’t last long, and Sunday she started and ended the meeting with a win, and plenty in between.
“I’ve kind of bounced back, it’s been quite a struggle, I obviously wasn’t getting as many drives and the drives I was getting I probably wasn’t driving as confidently, making silly moves I wouldn’t usually make
But it all came into place on Sunday, and I think it has been for the last couple of months or so, it kind of felt like I’ve got back into the groove of it and the results showed on Sunday.”
Lang Inwood trained a quartet of winners at Kellerberrin with Lets Rock Tonight, Rocknroll Train, Tux And Tails and Shes A Mare all taking top spot in their respective races.
Agent Booth broke through for his maiden win in the last for trainer Tracy Reay after leading all the way over the 2130m trip.
Although driving was the natural progression for Emily, there was a time where she thought she would head to University to pursue a different career, but after gaining her reins persons licence in year 12, she didn’t look back and at this stage, there’s nothing but driving on her horizon.
“I did go down the path of trying to do a bridging course for Uni, but I found it too hard, I was working at Colins (Brown) pretty much fulltime then and I didn’t really know what I was going to do at uni, I wasn’t really that bothered by it, so I was probably always going to be a driver,
“You obviously go through stages, when you’re not driving as many winners you kind of wonder (if this is it) but I’m into the groove of it and getting more drives and obviously Kellerberrin is a long day and long trip, but it made it worth it.”
