“If you’re lucky enough to be Irish”

Perhaps it’s the luck of the Irish, but harness racing horseman David Murphy is making the most of his renewed acquaintance with regional Victoria’s tightest harness racing circuit at Boort.

Murphy, who has 1400-plus wins as a reinsman and has passed 1000 as a trainer, was booked with his Irish band Old Melbourne Road for a gig at the central Victorian Bridgewater-on-Loddon Hotel on Saturday night (Mar 4).

But he decided to stop over to head an hour north for driving engagements at Boort on Sunday – and again had success.

“I drove at Boort at their meeting earlier this year and got a winner, and it was probably the first time I had driven there since I was about 19,” Murphy said.

“I used to drive there all the time when I was a junior, but that’s a while back now!  I did love driving there, and at all those non-TAB Saturday meetings in that area like Wedderburn, St Arnaud and Birchip.  I’d go up for one or two drives on horses from down my way, and usually pick up a couple of drives for some of the farmers up there who had one or two in work and needed a driver,” he said.

“I got to know a lot of people and made a lot of contacts, and some of them went on to send horses to me over the years, and some still do. Those meetings are always really social events, and the Boort meeting was great on Sunday.”

Murphy steered home Mighty Regal (Stonebridge Regal) for Monegeetta trainer Jody Woodham-Murdoch, in the Keith and Dawn McLelland Tribute.

It was a super training performance by Woodham-Murdoch – her first winner in two years, and with her 11-year-old campaigner first-up for almost 12 months.

“It was the first time I’d driven him, but I have to admit that I didn’t really follow the driving instructions to the letter,” Murphy said.

“Jody did tell me she thought he would be better with a sit, but when I held the front early I thought I’d be best to stay there. I was just hoping down the back straight that the horse would find a bit for me, which he did.  I don’t think the owners minded too much – they were super happy we got the win!”

Although Murphy runs a busy stable at Dunnstown, near Ballarat, the Old Melbourne Road bandmembers have also been putting in the hard yards at music gigs in recent months in the leadup to a return tour of Ireland in September.

“Years ago we used to get a bit of cash each from the gigs we played at, but in 2017 we decided we’d pool the money so we could do a trip to Ireland and play over there,” Murphy said.

“It was a fantastic trip – a bit intimidating playing Irish music to the Irish, I have to say, but we’ve got our own sound and the audiences seemed to like us.  We had a great time,” he said.

“We’ve been working towards getting back there in September. We’re planning to play about six gigs over a couple of weeks and we’ll go from Derry right up in Northern Ireland and all the way down to the south. Last time it was a bit of a whirlwind experience but when you’re going back you know want you want to see and know the ropes.

“Ireland is just a brilliant place to travel, the little villages and the little narrow roads, the big hedges and the countryside. We’ll see a lot of country and the Irish are just beautiful people.

“We put it out there a couple of months back for anyone that wanted to hook up with us and join in the tour, and we’ve got about 20 or 30 people who are travelling with us which will be great fun.”