13yo lines up for record 500th start

Thirteen-year-old Queensland warhorse Lancelot Bromac (Art Major) will line-up for a record 500th race start tomorrow afternoon (Apr 4) at the Albion Park harness racing meeting in Brisbane.

Over his 11-year racing journey, the veteran has recorded 33 wins and 133 placings for more than $375,000 in stakemoney—which equates to $750 in earnings per start.

“I reckon he can keep going for a good while longer yet. He doesn’t have any problems apart from a few aches and pains now and again. He just loves going to race each week,” trainer and part-owner Stewart Dickson, of Caboolture, said.

“He’s never put in a bad run during all his career and we’re all pretty proud that he turns up and wants to keep doing it,” he said.

“One of the trot writers from up here Darren Clayton worked out that if you added up all his race start distances, ‘Lance’, that’s what we call him, would have run the equivalent journey from the Gold Coast to Wagga Wagga.”

Dickson, who has been a successful trainer for over 50 years, said he really didn’t have a clue that Lancelot Bromac was so close to his 500th appearance.

“I don’t follow that sort of stuff too closely. When we broke the standardbred record of 486 starts held by Destreos (Astreos) back in last December, that crept up on us. I think the other co-owner race caller Mitch Manners may have been told by other people when we were getting close,” he said.

“People come up to us at the races all the time—during all his starts at the Creek, he’s been stabled in the same tie-up stall and that’s number 43.

“He gets a lot of attention, but I don’t know that he enjoys it that much!  He can be quite cranky when you’re putting on his harness.  He gets pretty toey and I always worry when they come around cleaning up manure in the race stalls because he’ll kick out as quick as can be.

“But he certainly has got a cult following.”

Queensland Racing will give away 500 lollipops at its meeting tomorrow to commemorate the milestone and Dickson said he had been told there would be a colorful display set up in Stall 43.

“That will be nice. The race caller Chris Barsby has suggested a statue of ‘Lance’ could be put out the front. That would be great if they did something like that.”

Dickson said consistency had been the key to the longevity of ‘Lance’.

“He hasn’t any gate speed at all, but if the races are run at a good tempo he’s never far away. He loves the style of Albion Park and if they go hard, he’s always a chance,” he said.

“There’s been quite a few drivers on him over the years. Pete McMullen just clicked with him early on, and he played a bit part in actually getting him going. Young Angus Garrard is doing a good job at the moment but there have been so many others – Victoria’s leading reinsman James Herbertson and last Saturday night Amanda Turnbull was up here for the invitation series and she reminded me she had won on him.”

Dickson said he got hooked on harness racing when he was growing up in North Queensland.

“Every Saturday afternoon I’d be at Cairns trots. The meetings were held at the Showgrounds and the track was known as Parramatta Park,” he said.

“It was very small and they’d do four laps to the mile. Back then some of the horses would start in three races during the day.

“There were also meetings at Townsville, Innisfail and other parts. The sport was big up there. When I shifted down closer to Brisbane in the 1960s, I broke in horses for the Raboki team, which was run by the late Tony Price, who was also from North Queensland.

“It was through Tony that we ended up with Lancelot Bromac. After five runs as a two-year-old (including one win), he didn’t think the horse would measure up and offered him to me.

“Tony said he wanted $5000, but I could pay him when the horse won or started earning some stakemoney. Thankfully that didn’t take all that long.

“When Lance won a few more, Tony would always joke it was time he sent me another invoice!”

Dickson said ‘Lance’ had always pulled up well after his racing.

“He enjoys getting home to his feed and the next day he’s jumping around in his yard all set to go again,” he said.

“Back when there were traffic lights outside the local police station, we hated it if we got a red light. The horse knew he was close to home and would sink the boots into the float. The police would come running out thinking it was gun shots!”

Dickson has been associated with some terrific horses over the years including Jacky Boy (Fake Left, 33 wins), Robert Harlyn (Vance Hanover, 33 wins), Speedy Lord (Lordship, 26 wins), Waylon (Had My Way, 25 wins) Lord Minbar (Gaines Minbar, 10 wins) and exceptional trotter Irish Wolfe Tone (Sundon, 17 wins).

And for now, he’s enjoying the resilience of an extraordinary old marvel in Lancelot Bromac.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink