Inter Dominion favourite drivers bouncing back from adversity

One of the many great angles of this Inter Dominion pacing final is the collective stories of the harness racing drivers on the three favourites.

Jodi Quinlan (Act Now), David Moran (Honolua Bay) and Mark Pitt (Mach Dan) all bring fascinating long and/or short term yarns into the sport’s most iconic race.

Winning an Inter Dominion is special to anyone, but it would mean that little bit more to the favoured trio.

Let’s start with the 48-year-old Quinlan.

One of Australia’s trailblazing and most successful female drivers tasted success in one of the sport’s biggest races when she got the late pick-up drive on Sokyola in the 2004 Miracle Mile.

But Quinlan’s career, which boasts over 2200 wins and 18 at Group 1 level, could have been over on Christmas Eve in 2018 when kicked by a runaway horse in the float car park at Melton. Her injuries included three fractures to her spine, a lacerated kidney and extensive muscle damage to the left side of her body.

For a large chunk of the time Quinlan spent recovering, she didn’t even think about returning to race driving.

Quinlan’s perseverance and determination saw her return to the sulky and within a year taking up the reins again, she started a partnership with Act Now.

It’s been a real win/win. Quinlan has worked through Act Now’s quirks and has the confidence to drive him to his strength, which is a lot more aggressively and confidently than most horses would be driven.

Quinlan’s driven Act Now 32 times for 17 wins, two of them Group 1’s in the 3YO Breeders Crown and Victoria Derby, four Group 2’s and two wins from his three heats of this Inter Dominion.

Give him a decent draw tonight (Dec. 5) and he’s the horse they all have to beat in Saturday night’s Grand Final.

David Moran’s story has just as many layers, albeit very different and in a much short time.

This time last year Moran answered a call-up from Team McCarthy and the owners of Expensive Ego and won the Menangle Inter Dominion final. Well, he was first past the post, only to be stripped of the win in the stewards’ room 30 minutes later.

It still doesn’t sit comfortably with Moran or many others for that matter.

Moran then switched his focus to getting his own superstar Lochinvar Art back from injury to pick-up where he’d left off – as Australasia’s best pacer.

But in the middle of all that, a couple of misdemeanors saw Moran sent to the sin bin for seven months.

What kept him going were two things, the fact Lochinvar Art would be back and ready to race about the time he returned from his stint on the sidelines and the prospect of reuniting with champion mare Ladies In Red.

We now know Lochinvar Art’s comeback didn’t go as planned and owner Kevin Gordon sent him across to the US to continue his racing career with Shane and Lauren Tritton.

That devastated Moran.

Ladies In Red has kept on her feature race-winning ways and done her part to help Moran through a very tough phase.

And now Honolua Bay is coming to the party as well.

Long regarded as an outstanding speedster, Honolua Bay’s gone to another level, got stronger and a lot more versatile and was the only unbeaten pacer through the Inter Dominion heats.

Moran’s adamant the 2760m of the final won’t be an issue and will head to Melton Saturday night with plenty of confidence from almost any barrier draw.

And then there is Pitt, who has taken the sport by storm since returning to driving in February after three years on the sidelines.

Pitt was sidelined as part of the long-running and messy Cobram saga.

He looked to have the world at his feet before it, having trained and driven Shez All Rock to win a NSW and Victoria Oaks and winning four of five drives on the freakish Ride High, including the Breeders Crown 3YO final.

Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin have long been fans of Pitt and it was no surprise when they snapped him up to be their stable driver when he returned.

Pitt has a 20-win lead on the Victorian metropolitan drivers’ premiership and is driving at an unthinkable 38 percent winning strike rate.

Mach Dan’s continued improvement and gate speed will make him a major player, especially with a good draw, on Saturday night.

by Adam Hamilton, for The Trots