Outback road trip sees reward for Ryan

Western Victorian concession reinsman Ryan Backhouse scooped up four winners in less than 24 hours to kick off his harness racing season in fine style last weekend (Jan 13-14) – the only problem was the 1400-plus kilometre round trip between the two venues.

Backhouse returned refreshed from a 12-day camping trip in Tasmania with family over Christmas, but quickly got back into the swing of the busy driving life, with his first engagements on Saturday on Australia’s smallest track at Broken Hill, in outback New South Wales.

“I got back into Melbourne on Friday, headed to Broken Hill the next morning, and then had a race drive at Hamilton on Sunday afternoon.  It was a different way to spend the weekend, most of it on the road, but it was worth it,” Backhouse said.

It’s 830 kilometres from Melbourne to Broken Hill – then 730 kilometres back to Hamilton, but Backhouse insists he didn’t give it a second thought.

“I’m the stable driver for Naomi Kerr at Mildura and her team’s going really well at the moment.  She put four in at Broken Hill, so I was always going to be there,” he said.

“The track’s about 600 metres around so it’s a bit tight, but I am used to that with tracks like Burnie (607 metres) and Scottsdale (740 metres) back home in Tassie. I was pretty happy that we got the three winners and really enjoyed the experience. I’m looking forward to getting up there again hopefully for the Cup night in March,” he said.

Kerr and Backhouse were victorious with Major Tarlz (Major Secret), Iambecauseofyou (Racing Hill) and My Line Of Fire (Betting Line).

Backhouse finished up driving duties at Broken Hill at 10.30pm, then hit the road back through the ‘roo country to Mildura where his girlfriend lives.

“It wasn’t too bad a trip.  I only saw about seven kangaroos, so I got back to Mildura around 2.30am, but I had to be up again at seven to get to Hamilton in time for the first race,” he said.

Again, his commitment paid off, scoring a comfortable win on Kenneth Taylor’s durable campaigner Kempsey’s Delight (Bettors Delight) the 11-year old’s 14^th career win.

“He’s a great old horse and always does his job.  He just ticks along and gives you his best every time,” Backhouse said.

The 18-year-old made the big decision last year to move to the mainland to pursue his harness racing dreams and things are now falling into place.

He recorded his most successful season in 2023 with 47 wins, including a personal best of five in one night at Mildura.  Outside of race driving, he is working for successful Horsham trainer Aaron Dunn.

“We’re working 16 at the moment, which keeps us busy, and I’m pretty much going every week to Mildura to drive, as well as picking up other drives here and there,” he said.

“Naomi (Kerr) has some really nice horses in her team at the moment. They’ve spent a bit of money on horses like Im Blinging It and Jaxon Beach and she’s starting to get the results now.”

Im Blinging It has had two wins and three seconds in his five starts since joining Kerr’s stable from NSW, and Jaxon Beach has had two wins and two placings in four starts for the Mildura stable.

Kerr is in just her third season of training and recorded 29 wins in 2023.  So far this season she has five wins and four placings from 12 starters.

“She does a good job and puts a lot of time into the horses, so it’s good to see her getting the rewards,” Backhouse said.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink