1000 wins for Prentice

Kim Prentice joined an elite few on Monday when he claimed his 1000th driving success on board his own horse Sweet Vivienne (Sweet Lou) at Pinjarra, becoming just the 18th harness racing driver to reach this feat in WA, with almost half of those winners driven in metropolitan company.

“I’ve just been a person that watches other people and learns from anybody and everybody, that’s pretty much it,” he said.

“I know when Justin Warwick was flying, I always watched him at the trots, but I’ve never had a teacher or anything like that.

“But driving wise, Russell Betts helped me big time. For someone who’s never sat in the cart, he taught me so much as a driver.”

Kim went into the meeting as relaxed as possible, hopeful he could break through for the milestone event, but treating Monday as just a normal day at the races.

“I even said to myself in the morning, don’t think about the 1000 and things will go right, if you think about it, it will never happen,” he said.

No stranger to success, Prentice has driven 15 Group 1 winners, including WA sensation Im Themightyquinn NZ in the 2011 WA Pacing Cup, but like many, The Inter Dominion was the ultimate dream.

“There’s been some nice ones but inters was the biggest one (thrill), just the pressure of being away, so far from home for so long.”

In 2003, Prentice head to New Zealand with his horse Baltic Eagle NZ with the duo coming out on top in the prestigious $500,000 final, a thrill not everyone gets to experience in their lifetime.

With his father involved in racing, always mucking around with a few, it wasn’t until he met Debbie (Prentice) that he made the plunge into harness racing more seriously, having his first success as both a trainer and driver in 1986 with his horse Hezavillain at Bunbury.

“Her family was into it big time, so we were both just hobby trainers as we both worked at the time, and had a couple of horses, and then she gave up driving when she got pregnant, and I took over after that.”

Prentice is currently sitting on 947 training winners, with the 1000 his next goal.

“I don’t know how many people have done that. Lots of people have driven 1000 winners but not many have done the double.”

Prentice has two runners in this weeks Group 1 2YO Pearl Classic with Crowd Control drawn barrier two and Soho Firestone in barrier four, and when asked if he thinks this week could add another win towards his 1000 wins goal, he replied “It would be f*%king nice.”

“We’ll be close enough, I can’t see us beating Justin, but as long as we earn something, it will be great.”

Group 1’s that Prentice has won as a driver:

2001 2YO Fillies Sires Stakes – Montana Anna: Trained by Kim Prentice

2002 2YO Pearl Classic – Your Call Lombo: Trained by Kim Prentice

2003 Fremantle Cup – Baltic Eagle NZ: Trained by Kim Prentice

2003 WA Pacing Cup – Baltic Eagle NZ: Trained by Kim Prentice

2003 Inter Dominion – Baltic Eagle NZ: Trained by Kim Prentice

2004 2YO C&G Sales Classic – Fake Embrace: Trained by Kim Prentice

2006 2YO C&G Sales Classic – Aikido Whitby: Trained by Noel Keiley

2006 3YO Fillies WA Oaks – Dilingers Reign: Trained by Noel Keiley

2011 WA Pacing Cup – Im Themightyquinn NZ: Trained by Gary Hall Snr

2011 C&G Sales Classic – Black Aquila: Trained by Gary Hall Snr

2012 2YO Diamon Classic – Eagle Rox: Trained by Kim Prentice

2016 4YO Golden Nugget – Soho Tribeca: Trained by Kim Prentice

2017 Vicbred Super Series – Soho Tribeca: Trained by Kim Prentice

2018 WA Pacing Cup – Soho Tribeca: Trained by Bryan Cousins

2021 3YO Fillies WA Oaks – Benesari Lane: Trained by Ron Huston

* Special thanks to harness racing stalwart, Alan Parker, for his information and knowledge contributing to this article. An absolute asset to WA Harness Racing.

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA