Snippets from far and wide

POPULAR VICTORIAN harness racing identity Donna Castles couldn’t have wanted a better start to 2023 – recording her first ever training treble at Echuca on the first night of the new season.

As one wag noted, Donna was briefly the leading State trainer!

Castles trained Arraps (Rock N Roll Heaven), Cheeki Philtra (Modern Art) and Berriesandcherries (Crazed) to victory – and finished second with Sofala on the same program. She also drove Cheeki Philtra and Berriesandcherries while her partner Doc Wilson steered Arraps to the win.

“I’ve had doubles before, but never a treble, so it was a big thrill,” Castles said.

“They had all been working well and we did go thinking that Arraps had a good draw and goes way better in front. Berriesandcherries is trotting really well at the moment and is very honest – but it was nice that everything just fell into place for the three of them,” she said.

Castles said the stable’s bias towards square gaiters had been building over the years.

“I prefer the trotters nowadays.  We’d always had pacers, but we started with one trotter and then Doc just kept getting more and more. They all have their little quirks, but we like working them out and getting them to do their best,” she said.

Their stable at Ardmona in the Goulburn Valley has now grown to around 30 horses, and Donna said it was a team effort.

“Doc really runs things and does a lot of the work, but we’ve got a good team going. My daughter Georgia, who’s 19, is fantastic helping out whenever she can in the afternoons and that makes a huge difference.”

THE REMOTE New South Wales harness racing club at Broken Hill is turning the focus back onto its local community in an innovative push at shoring up horse numbers to secure the future of its meetings.

The small number of drivers and trainers at “The ‘Hill”, in the far southwest of the State, are so enthusiastic about their sport, but in recent years have become reliant on Victorian stables from the Sunraysia region to cover the shortfall in local horse numbers for meetings to go ahead.

The club has been forced to cancel meetings due to insufficient nominations—-and that’s the case with tomorrow night’s (Jan 7) planned season opener.

“Despite an increase in stake money, thanks to HRNSW, we were still unable to secure enough nominations to race,” the club said.

“This is a sobering reminder of how precious our sport is and how we need to see a rise in local horse numbers to sustain our racing future.”

The club is sending out pleas to anyone interested in forming syndicates to purchase or race a horse of their own to be placed with a local trainer. It is urging people to jump on board at low cost, have a bit of fun and bolster the Silver City’s local horse population.

GREAT WESTERN horsewoman Michelle Wight has urged owners and trainers to “giddy up” if they hope to be part of a horseshoe sphere to be put on display in the foyer of the hotel at TABcorp Park, Melton.

“A big thanks goes out to the people who have donated shoes so far, but I’d love to get quite a few more. But there’s a catch and that is I need them pronto,” Michelle said.

“The plan is to get it finished in the next week or so. I’ve asked people to take the shoes to any race meeting and give them to Michael Bellman, my dad (Peter Manning), my sister Kerryn, or to Donna Lewis at Garrards or photographer Claire Weston.

“I’ve been trying to use steel shoes that have come from horses that have raced at Melton — no matter whether they are considered a champion or are just a battler.

“I’d also love to get shoes from clerk of the course horses and even pony trotters. All the names will be displayed.”

Michelle, who has made a name for herself with her rustic horseshoe sculptures, is understandably honored to be asked to create the display piece.

“There’s a bit of a secret in getting the horseshoes welded together in a ball. It’s not easy, but I’m getting better at it,” she said.

THE JUST COMPLETED 2022 season is sure to be long remembered by the all-conquering husband and wife team of Greg Sugars and Jess Tubbs, of Myrniong, north-west of Melbourne.

Headlined by a clean sweep in the SENTrack Inter Dominion Trotting Championship series in Victoria by Just Believe (Orlando Vici), the couple also enjoyed success in a host of other feature races. (Incidentally the ID22 success was the second year in a row the champion reinsman has won the Inter trotting crown-he won it in 2021 driving Maori Law for father and son, Richard and Emmett Brosnan.)

Sugars finished last season with 211 wins and 318 placings from 1154 drives, while Tubbs was awesome with a most creditable strike-rate of 103 victories and 137 minors from 484 runners.

The Sugars-Tubbs team are great supporters of the Warragul club and Jess has been rewarded with the trainer of the year title for 2022. She won from Tasmanian Ben Yole, who now has a satellite stable at Kilmore with caretaker trainer being Rob Walters.

Other Warragul premiership results:

Leading driver – Chris Alford (Runner-up Greg Sugars)

Concession driver of the Year – Michelle Phillips (Runner-up James Herbertson)

Pacer of the Year – Tie for first place by Playa Blanca and Illawong Phoenix

Trotter of the Year – The Girls Gotflair (Runner-up Sovereign Tiger)

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink