Lockdown fast-tracks Norman’s winter campaign

Victoria’s latest COVID-19 lockdown certainly put the skates under Charlton harness racing trainer Greg Norman and his plans for a northern winter campaign.

Norman said he’d always planned to head to Queensland for his first ever race campaign in that State to target the Derbies with his two handy three-year-olds Aladdin and Apieceoflou and well-performed mare Belladonna Girl.

But the Victorian lockdown fast-tracked the planning process.

“I basically had to pack up the float and go.  We needed to be across the border by 4pm on the Thursday (when the lockdown was announced) or we wouldn’t have been allowed into NSW, and we got over the Murray River at Barham at three.  It was a near thing!”

Norman has set up at Menangle for the halfway point of his trip north, and will race in NSW for the next fortnight.

“I couldn’t go straight on to Queensland, because they have the tightest restrictions of any State, except for WA, and I need to be in NSW for two weeks before I can enter Queensland,” Norman said.

“It’s the new world we live in, unfortunately, but that’s the way it is. So I’m based at Menangle, which I’m enjoying and we’ll try to do a bit here before we head on to Queensland, provided there aren’t any COVID cases here in the meantime.”

Belladonna Girl was the first starter for Norman in NSW at Menangle last Saturday and was a credible death-seat performance. Apieceoflou never saw daylight from three back on the pegs, and was an unlucky fourth at Menangle on Tuesday at his first NSW outing and Aladdin will step out against a hot lineup of youngsters at Menangle on Saturday night.

“There’s certainly some picket fences in the form in Aladdin’s race, but if you want to go around in the good three-year-old races, you’ve got to perform against those horses and he seems to be going nicely,” Norman said.

“But it’s very hard to win in this part of the world. I’ve made three trips to Menangle and I’ve never been able to win a race here.  We’ll give it a crack and if we can’t keep up at Menangle we might re-evaluate!  But Aladdin and Apieceoflou are a couple of nice horses so we’ll see what happens.”

Norman is the private trainer of prominent Adelaide owners Adam, Ben and Terry Cormack.  They finalised the purchase of Aladdin just ahead of his New Year’s Eve win in New Zealand’s richest race for colts and geldings, the inaugural $200,000 Listed NZB Standardbred Harness Million final.

Aladdin (Sweet Lou-Pacing Delight (Bettors Delight) took out the South Australian Derby in April, with Apieceoflou (Sweet Lou – Wantapieceofme (Rocknroll Hanover) seven metres behind in third in the same race.  Belladonna Girl claimed the $50,000 South Australia Southern Cross 3yo final in December.

“The boys have been turning a few horses over lately, a couple of have gone back to Adelaide to stay in work, and they’ve sold a couple as well, so I’ve just brought the three with me, with the primary aim of competing in the Queensland derbies,” Norman said.

“The first of those is Redcliffe Derby (June 26) but I’m expecting that it’s going to be tough this year.  With no Breeders Crown until later in the year, every man and his dog seems to be planning to head up!

“Perhaps some from Victoria might have been caught out by the restrictions, but horses can always get through of course, not so much the trainers and drivers.  There are plenty heading up from NSW though, so there should be some very good racing in Queensland over the next few weeks.

“I’ve never been here to race before – only to attend a wedding once up here years ago – so it’ll be great to get up there and have a look around and even better to have some horses here with me to race.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink