Bush trainer’s $5000 birthday gift ready to upstage $3m rival

Craig KerryJuly 31, 2026 — 5:00pmTony Ball saw plenty of expensive horse flesh during his decade-long stint as a foreman for Godolphin in Sydney, and he knows first hand that breeding and price tags can often mean little when it comes to how they perform on the racetrack.That’s partly why the Taree trainer has no qualms about taking $5000 buy Andrea to Rosehill for a first crack at Saturday city company, after he was balloted out of the Highway Handicap for country-trained horses.Andrea, right, tries to catch Sneaky Pee Cee in the Highway Handicap at Rosehill on July 18. Shannen Llewellyn rides him again on Saturday. Getty ImagesComing off an eye-catching second in a Highway last start, Andrea will take on a field including Chris Waller-trained $3 million filly Ernaux, a daughter of I Am Invincible and Booker which has shown promise in city company but won only one race in 14 starts in the colours of American billionaire John Stewart.Ball has worked at both ends of the breeding and training spectrum. He enjoyed his time as a foreman under the leadership of Peter Snowden, John O’Shea and briefly James Cummings with Darley and Godolphin before later training his own team in the country.“You see them come and you see them go, and everyone says they’ve got slow ones,” Ball said of the racing powerhouse.“Well, let me tell you, everyone’s got slow ones.”Trainer Tony Ball.Getty ImagesBall now trains a team of 25 and he had 15 winners in the 2025-26 season, including a Canterbury victory with The Face. Xtra Approval gave him his other city winner in 2022 in a Rosehill Highway.He hopes Andrea can go a step higher to kick off the new season. The Graff gelding was held up briefly for a run last start before motoring home to almost catch Sneaky Pee Cee in a class 2 1100m Highway two weeks ago on heavy going. A $6 TAB chance, he steps up to 1200m on Saturday for a benchmark 72 handicap for three and four-year-olds.“If you look at it, they are only class 3 horses, so it’s the same as the Highway,” Ball said.“And there’s only 10 in it now. He’ll go good and you never know. You can try him and just see how he goes.“If you’re not in it, you can’t win it, and he’s run third in a 64 in Sydney before. He’s consistent and he tries. He runs them down, he really finishes off.“There’s another Highway in a couple of weeks we might be able to get into. If he wins, we’ll just go day by day, that’s our attitude.”The bargain buy from the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, owned by Ball’s wife, Barbara, and son, Michael, has two wins and four placings in 12 starts for a return of $75,338.“I wish they were all like that,” Ball said.“My wife actually bought him for my son for his 40th birthday, and you are never going to believe why they bought him.“My wife loves Kitchwin Hill horses, and he had the KWH on him, and she saw him.“We’ve had quite a few of them and we’ve had luck with them, so we just keep picking one out occasionally and buy them.“We’ve got a stable full of young ones and you never know what’s around the corner for them.”Scone stud Kitchwin Hills famously foaled and raised Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare and Everest champion Yes Yes Yes.Ball has fond memories of his time with Darley and Godolphin, which started out of the blue.“I was training in Queensland and my wife saw a job advertised and put in for it. I didn’t even know about it,” he said.“We got it, so we went down to Warwick Farm. We had a great time there and met some really nice people, and we’re still friends with them all down there. Brad Widdup was an assistant trainer and I worked under him, and I’m still great mates with him.”From our partners