WHEN Bustling Barney hit the lead in the final metres at the Bathurst Paceway on Wednesday night, driver Jason Turnbull was pleased the gelding had posted a tough win.
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It was only later the The Lagoon reinsman found out he another reason to feel pleased. In steering Bustling Barney to victory he had notched up the 400th winning drive of his career.
"I didn't even realise to be honest. I just look at it as every win's a win, so I didn't have a clue until they put on [Facebook] that it was the 400," he said.
"It was a pleasant surprise that's for sure. I wouldn't have a clue how many wins I've had in my lifetime, but it was nice to find out, it's certainly nice to achieve a milestone like that.
"It's taken me a lot longer than it's taken some other people, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who haven't got there yet."
Turnbull began his driving career when he was "16 or 17" and now has around 21 years of experience in the gig.
Though he naturally can not recall all the winners he's steered in that time - most of them as a stable driver for his mother-trainer Wendy Turnbull - there are some that stick in his mind.
"I won the Shirley Turnbull Memorial with Gee Dees Boy, that was probably the best sentimental win and I also won the Gold Chalice, which was nice, on a horse called Fullaspeed. They're probably my two highlights," the 38-year-old said.
"That Shirley Turnbull Memorial race, obviously Shirley was my Grandmother, so it was really good to win and on a horse named after Dad after Dad had passed. Mum and another person owned the horse, so it was really, I guess you could say, a family orientated win."
Both those wins came in 2003.
In the Gold Chalice final for three-year-old colts and geldings on March 29 that year, Fullaspeed won by five metres as the odds on favourite.
Nine months later Gee Dees Boy won the Shirley Turnbull Memorial at the old Bathurst Showground Paceway by 3.3m after clocking a hot 28.6 seconds final quarter.
But just as Turnbull has enjoyed a number highlights during his driving career, there have been tough times too.
One of those came in August last year. A training incident left him with a compound fracture of the fibula and tibia as well as a broken talus bone in his ankle.
It not only sidelined him for six months, but required four surgical procedures to help fix the damage.
"It happened at home, we were training and one I was driving ran off the track and I lost control," Turnbull said.
"I ended up on top of a barbed wire fence, I slid across it for two metres, and the only thing that stopped me was a star post I hit my left leg on.
"So I was broken good and proper. That was the end of August and I started driving again six months after that, so it's good to be back and getting winners.
"The team is going really well here at the moment actually, Rock Bottom has won three since I've been back and now Barney won the other night. Rock Bottom went super again [Wednesday] night too."
Rock Bottom finished a 2.8m second in his race at the Bathurst Paceway on Wednesday night, so it was left to $9.50 chance Bustling Barney to help Turnbull make it 400 career wins.
On Sunday at the Bathurst Paceway, Turnbull will be in the gig once again.
He will steer Cala Greca for his mother Wendy and Dont Tell Dorothy for Oberon trainer Geoff Lawson.
While neither runner will start as a favourite, Turnbull thinks they "can be thereabouts".
The eight-race Bathurst meeting is set to commence at noon.
