From Tamworth to the Miracle Mile - Jye Coney’s breakout year

A year ago, Jye Coney was best known around Bathurst as one of two teenage mates sitting near the top of the NSW drivers’ harness racing premiership.

Now he is a regular in the biggest races in the country.

Since March, the young reinsman has driven the champion mare Captains Mistress in the $1 million Miracle Mile, driven in the $1 million Inter Dominion final, and passed 300 career winners.

On Wednesday morning he was back at work as usual, steering Alta William for trainer Chris Judd to fourth in the Menangle trial won by TAB Eureka favourite Loucasso.

Coney’s story starts in Tamworth.

He is the son of trainer Greg Coney and the younger brother of reinswoman Jemma Coney, and came through the NSW mini trot ranks before leaving school to chase a career in the sulky. He had his first race drives at Tamworth three years ago, aged 16. After a third and a second earlier on the card, he won the last race of the day behind Colby, a $15 chance trained by his father.

From there he moved to Bathurst, spending 18 months with trainer Nathan Turnbull and driving alongside his good mate Jett Turnbull. By late last year he was leading the state’s concession drivers’ premiership and had moved to Sydney, linking up with Judd’s stable at The Barn at Menangle.

The big break came in March. When stable driver Cameron Hart chose to partner Swayzee in the Miracle Mile, trainer Jason Grimson and owner Mick Boots handed Coney the drive on Captains Mistress.

He was 18, had driven 267 winners and had yet to win a Group 1.

“It’s a ballsy move from Jason and Mick,” Coney said.

The mare was held up three back on the pegs and finished fifth behind Leap To Fame, with Coney adamant she was unlucky.

“She’d have been right in the finish with any luck at all,” Coney said.

That same night he won the Group 2 Light Horse Free For All on Hi Manameisjeff for Grimson, and the drives kept coming.

He won again on Hi Manameisjeff at Menangle in May, landed Catchafire in June and drove a winning double on Huta and Vite Monet in July.

In July, Grimson went back to Coney for the Inter Dominion final, giving him the drive on Dangerous, the third of the trainer’s three runners at Albion Park.

“I’m pinching myself that I’ll now be driving in one,” Coney said.

Dangerous raced in the one out, one back position as Captains Mistress, now with Hart in the sulky, led throughout to beat Leap To Fame in one of the great Inter Dominion finals.

Grimson has said he has no regrets about trusting the youngster with Captains Mistress in the Miracle Mile, believing it was the right call given the races the stable had planned for her.

Still a teenager, Coney has already driven in a Miracle Mile and an Inter Dominion final, and the phone keeps ringing.

For a kid who won his first race behind one of his father’s horses at Tamworth, it has been quite a ride.

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by Harnesslink Media