By David Gilbert
IT has been a great year in the sulky on the local harness racing scene for Yahl’s Mark Phillips.
Ever since he won the Mount Gambier gold cup back in March with Springfield Affair, winners have kept rolling in for the 38-year-old driver at the Greenwald Paceway.
From his last eight drives, six have been winners, all of them at local meetings.
A personal best four winners last Friday night enabled Phillips to take his tally to 11 for 2023, one win in front of Jackie Barker who also had a winner on the program.
“I’ve had a couple of doubles before but never four winners,” Phillips stated before quipping “that’s not too bad for a plumber.”
With one meeting left to complete the season, Phillips and Barker have the local premiership to themselves, with Lochie Cook and Jayson Finnis left to fight out third spot.
All his quartet of winners last Friday night were for local trainers with his final winner giving the Steve Fennell stable a double for the night.
HAPPIEST MAN ON TRACK
IT was a memorable night for Kongorong trainer Neil Shepherd at the Greenwald Paceway last Friday night.
Shepherd, a long standing committeeman and vice president of the Mount Gambier Harness Racing Club, trained the fourth winner of his career when Classact ($10) resumed from an eight-month spell to win the NR 47-54 pace in a three-way charge to the line.
To have a winner on the same night as a memorial race dedicated to his late father Graham was the icing on the cake and Shepherd was the happiest person on track.
Classact has provided Shepherd with three of his four winners, all of them in 2023 (also at Stawell and Hamilton) after the pacer came to him from the Victorian stable of Matthew Horsnell.
It was the first of driver Mark Phillips four winners on the program and he used the sprint lane to advantage to get the six-year-old pacer home by a neck.
In the NR 40 pace, the win by Majorholeinmypocket (by a short half head) has brought the Steve Fennell trained pacer into strong contention to win the horse of the year award for local harness racing this year.
That was Majorholeinmypocket’s fourth win here this year and the three-year-old filly landed some good wagers ($6.50-$4).
EXPERIENCE PREVAILED
FRIDAY night’s feature race, the Graham Shepherd Memorial, was the best race seen for some time at the Greenwald Paceway, with the youngster Lethal Louie pitted against the experienced pair of Julius Shadow and Springfield Affair.
Despite being unplaced at all six runs this campaign, punters surprisingly jumped on the Julius Shadow bandwagon and he was backed with great confidence ($7-$2.60 fav.).
But it was the local pair who fought out the finish with the ever improving Springfield Affair gunning down Lethal Louie in the final 200 metres for another memorable victory.
Mark Phillips can take much of the credit for the win as he managed to have the Kevin Von Duve trained pacer behind the leader (Lethal Louie) from barrier five after only 300 metres.
“He (Springfield Affair) is best known as a stayer but he can sprint pretty hard, as we saw,” Phillips stated.
His fourth and final winner came about in slightly easier fashion when the heavily backed Dare To Do ($2.20-$1.45 fav.) was given a charmed run and saluted at her second career start.
Those who took the short odds about Tilly Jayne ($1.22 fav.) in the final event never had too many worries about collecting.
After three consecutive seconds in Adelaide, Tilly Jayne returned to the form which saw her win her first two career starts and recorded the fastest mile rate of the night.
WELL WORTH THE DRIVE
VICTORIAN teenager Liam Older had his first drive at Mount Gambier last Friday night for instant success.
The Bendigo based Older came across with Glen Park (via Ballarat) trainer Zac Steenhuis who had five runners for the night and they combined to win the opening event with the previously out-of-form Ourbeachbabe ($13)
The four-year-old pacer had run last at her previous three starts after winning at Echuca on October 25.
Nineteen year old Older must have thought “how easy is this” after crossing from gate five to lead all the way in the NR 41-43 pace, but that was the end of the winners for the night for the pair.
At least they went home with a winner and it would have helped as Older was not expecting to get back to Bendigo before 3am.
That was Older’s 56th winner as a driver and the 76th career winner for 25 year old Steenhuis.
Local harness racing needs the support of youngsters like Steenhuis and Older, and that win will hopefully see them return for future meetings.
There were two local winners at Horsham last Monday.
The Andrew Clarke trained Give Us A Wink ($31) won his first race for nearly two years by taking out the NR 45 pace with Neil McCallum in the cart.
Then the consistent Sea Flyer ($3.50 fav.) made it three wins from her past six starts for trainer Greg Howard and recorded the fastest mile rate of the day (1.58.3) in the NR 50-59 pace.
Harness racing returns to the Greenwald Paceway next Friday night (December 22) where Father Christmas is expected to make an appearance.
THIRD METROPOLITAN WIN
THE Sue Murphy trained Hasta La Fiorente made it three metropolitan victories in the space of four months with his win in the 2500-metre BM 80 handicap at Morphettville last Saturday.
In a city race of very ordinary quality and quantity, the eight-year-old gelding seemed good value at $2.90 even allowing for the fact he had top weight on a heavy track.
In a change of tactics, regular rider Dominic Tourneur took Hasta La Fiorente straight to the lead and set a moderate tempo before tiring late to score by a long head.
Meanwhile, injury prone stablemate Hasta La War is now being aimed at the Adelaide cup carnival next autumn after failing to qualify for last month’s Melbourne cup.
In his final lead up to that race, Hasta La War finished a long last in the Bendigo cup and it was discovered his old hoof injury had flared again.
At Murray Bridge last Sunday, a Soft 7 track did not stop Badonkidonk ($2.60 fav.) from returning to the winning list.
After three consecutive seconds, the Darryl Dodson (Bordertown) trained gelding scored a worthy victory by leading all the way for jockey Kayla Crowther in the 1800-metre BM 58 handicap.
BORDERTOWN CUP THIS SUNDAY
IT is the start of the Limestone Coast cup season this Sunday with the Bordertown Racing Club staging a seven race program for cup day.
Country cups such as Bordertown, Naracoorte, Penola and Millicent are no longer open company races and this year’s $40,000 Bordertown cup over 2000 metres is for BM 72 rated horses.
Amongst the cup entries are the Lindsay Cadzow trained Space Equity, Scottish Soldier (Scott Irlam) and Badonkidonk (Darryl Dodson) who will be trying to keep the cup in local hands.
From the nominations, the Stawell visitor Extra Elusive looks hard to beat in the cup, while the latest effort of the Jamie Opperman trained Rohlon Drunk suggests he may be good value in the 1200 metre BM 66 handicap.
