MIRACLE Mile winning Bathurst reinsman Mat Rue achieved a career milestone at Parkes last week when the 26-year-old drove his 500th career winner. 

While the victory by Tulhurst Ace may have gone unnoticed by many, winning on the Nathan Hurst trained four-year-old meant a great deal to Rue as the Eglinton stable was one of his biggest supporters in the early days.

On leaving school, Rue got a job working for Golden Gait Stud’s Wayne Lamb before securing a job at the Cowra Abattoir. Despite being busy at work, Rue still found time to travel around the Central West of New South Wales to drive at country meetings.

“I’d finish at the meat works by 12.30 and I’d head off to wherever I could get a drive in the early days. There were plenty of people who were willing to give me a go and that helped my development,” Rue said.

“Dad [Ken Rue] helped me a lot too, he had two horses – Miracle In Time and Lace And Whiskey – and I was able to win quite a few which got my career going.”

When Rue started to establish himself as a junior reinsman he moved to Bathurst and began working for Georges Plains trainer Bernie Hewitt. It was during this time that he got his biggest break through unfortunate circumstances.

“I was doing a bit of driving for Kevin and Nathan Hurst in those days and Nathan got hurt and had to have about 18 months off. So I started picking up about 70 per cent of the drives for the stable and they had about 25 horses in work at the time,” Rue said.

“Back in those days, trainers like Peter Trevor-Jones was a great support and he still is today, but once I started to get a few winners, I started to get more opportunities.”

It was during this period that Rue caught the attention of Luke McCarthy and he soon moved to Sydney to become the junior reinsman for the state’s leading stable. 

Rue enjoyed his most successful season while living in Sydney and recorded 110 winners in 2011/12.

However, it wasn’t until April 2013 that Rue enjoyed the best day of his career when he drove a Group One double at Menangle, including the Miracle Mile on the McCarthy trained Baby Bling.

“It was a day everyone dreams about and it is something that will probably never happen again, but to win the Miracle Mile and the Australian Pacing Gold for two year olds on Lettucerockthem was so special,” he said.

“I had dreamed about winning the Miracle Mile since I was young and to achieve it was something I will never forget.”

Rue moved to North America for more experience and while learning a lot, he was unable to drive a winner.

“I think I had about 30 drives over there, I got six placings which was good, but I was ready to come home and have a crack at it,” Rue said.

“I moved back to Bathurst with Bernie and have been working for him since. Nothing beats the thrill of driving winners but I’m really enjoying training the young horses and I have a small team of five in work.”

One of the horses Rue trains is lightly raced three-year-old Fouroeight.

“He is owned by Tony Pace and when I first picked him up, it was only a couple of days after Australian cricketer Phil Hughes had died after he was hit in the head while playing for South Australia,” he said.

“I named the horse Phil straight away because I am a pretty big cricket fan and when it came time to name him, I asked Tony if I could put a name in for him and I decided to use Phil Hughes’ Australian Test number and that’s how I came up with Fouroeight.”

Fouroeight was Rue’s 499th winner as a driver and he brought up his 500th the following night at Parkes.

“I’d love to keep doing what I’m doing, everything is going really well for me at the moment. My fiance Gemma [Hewitt] and I are due to get married and hopefully the winners keep coming,” he said.