Major Menangle milestones

Last Saturday night’s TAB Regional Championships State Final provided evergreen trainer Trevor White and up-and-coming harness racing driver Peter McRae with their first Group 1 winner capping off a week of firsts at Menangle.

White and McRae’s success was brought up with Roll With Joe gelding Defiant who lived up to his name when he beat the odds to score by a narrow head margin to upstage his more fancied rivals in the $100,000 feature.

Earlier that week at New South Wales’ premier track on Tuesday young Bathurst driver Olivia Frisby scored her first city win when she combined with trainer Wade Judd with Blaze Edition (Western Edition).

Seventeen-year-old Frisby lives and breathes harness racing, sharing her time between helping her father Nigel with his team of four horses before heading to the Georges Plains stables of Bernie and Cath Hewitt where she works full time.

It was Olivia’s first drive at Menangle, handling the occasion like a professional and according to many good judges the win will be the first of many for the third generation driver.

“It was a really special win for me,” said Frisby

“This horse means so much to his owners Claire and Wade Judd and to be able to drive a winner for them in town was awesome.

“The race panned out so well for him, finding the spot outside the leader as he loves to race on the speed. We gained a cheap middle half which helped, as he had plenty left for the run home.”

BLAZE EDITION REPLAY

Olivia follows in the footsteps of some talented family members but is quickly forging her own path and attracting the attention of some of the bigger stables in country New South Wales.

“My Grandfather Brian (Frisby) was a handy trainer, driver in his day, while Dad drove in races and continues to train a small team.”

“Then my Uncles Chris (Frisby) and Steve (Turnbull) are amongst the best trainers in Australia, while my cousins Nathan, Josh, Amanda and Mitch Turnbull and Anthony Frisby are all so talented horse people in their own right.”

Olivia has three drives at Bathurst on Wednesday throughout the eight race program which gets underway at 5:07pm.

She will drive consistent gelding Reason To Party (For A Reason) in the opening event, last start winner Blaze Edition in race two and outsider Dark Terror (Western Terror) in the fourth and while she knows luck will need to go her way, she heads there tonight with confidence.

For complete Bathurst race fields, click here.

by Michael Dumesny, for HRNSW