Young man in a hurry – all around the State

Leading Victorian harness racing driver James Herbertson was notching up the milestones, along with his usual miles, this week – but one big achievement still awaits.

Herbertson’s 900-kilometre road trip to Mildura on Tuesday night (Nov 8) was rewarded not only with a driving treble, but his 200th win of the season, on Sahara Tiger (Art Major) for Charlton trainer Shane Sanderson.

“I knew I was getting close, but I hadn’t counted my interstate wins, so it came a day or two earlier than I was expecting, which was nice,” Herbertson said.

Last year the 22-year-old recorded his best-ever season, with a total of 200 wins.  So the following night a home-track double at Ballarat brought up another benchmark – the most successful season in Herbertson’s career.

For season 2022 he has now driven 202 wins (14 percent) with 354 places (25 percent) for $1.7m in stakes.

Still technically a concessional driver, Herbertson already has that seasonal award wrapped up, and he is currently leading the State Driver’s Premiership ahead of Mark Pitt on (188 wins), with Greg Sugars in third (179).

But Pitt, who is lead driver for the powerful Emma Stewart stable, has been rapidly closing the gap, as the stable makes its renowned annual run at the rich juvenile and breeders’ features currently being decided.  Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Nov 4 -6) Pitt had 16 drives for 12 wins and one placing, including a bag of six at the Maryborough Breeders Crown heats meeting (five for Stewart and one for his partner, Lisa Bartley).

So the young freelancer Herbertson will have to continue to spend long days on the road over the final seven weeks of the season if he’s to hold onto the Premiership.

“It’s a numbers game.  I just have to keep doing my best,” he said.

Always appreciative of the opportunities he gets from trainers across the State, Herbertson followed his strong ties to the sport through his dad Ashleigh, a trainer for over 30 years, and his mum Jody, who was a steward in Queensland before the family moved to Victoria.

He drives to up to eight meetings a week, including double-header day and night meetings on some occasions.

“I’ve been missing out on the Mildura meetings for a while because they’ve clashed with other meetings on the same day down here. But from now on they’re stand alone, so I’ll be heading up there again,” he said.

“At Lexton we’re quite central in terms of a lot of tracks. There are some long days, but overall, I’ve been pretty fortunate – the potholes in the roads are more of a worry than ‘roos at the moment.

“I’m lucky that a friend Greg Eeles, from Carisbrook, is always happy to come on trips with me.  Most times he’s the passenger, but he takes the wheel now and again,” Herbertson said.

“I probably drive between 1800 to 2500 kilometres each week to get to meetings – and I can’t actually remember the last day I had off at the moment!”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink