A night out at Bunbury for the Young family

The Young family dominated the Bunbury meeting on Friday night, with the well-known harness racing family taking out the first three races on the card and then rounding out the meeting with a win in the last.

The family’s history in the sport began with 79-year-old Ron Young, father to Shane, Kim, David and Matthew and grandfather to Jocelyn and Madeleine, who are all firmly implanted in harness racing in WA.

Shane, Madeleine and Jocelyn flew the flag for the family when the trio all walked away with winners on the night, with Jocelyn Young taking bragging rights with a driving double.

“I’ve got heaps of family support and help. It would be impossible without them, as you know, it’s an extremely tough industry. It will either make you or break you,” Jocelyn Young said.

Dontbesillychilli took out the opener at Bunbury for local trainer Sarah Wall and was piloted by Madeleine Young for the two-year-olds fillies first race victory at just start four.

Bred and trained by Wall, the filly by Western Terror NZ is out of the Group 3 winning mare Justlikechocolate and mile rated in 1:59:1 over the 2100m, winning comfortably by 4.6m.

Shane Young took out race two with his runner Goddess Of Reason, breaking through for her maiden win at her first start.

The four-year-old settled at the back of the field, with Young making full use of the sprint lane to win by 4.1m in the small field.

With the favourite breaking at release point, it was anyone’s race, with the $4.80 shot saluting the judge in a mile rate of 1:59:1 in the 1609m sprint.

The win for her owner Brooke Adams was one that was quite special, with the mare having been an orphan when her dam Tryalittlekindness died during foaling, leaving Adams to bottle feed the foal from the day she was born.

With help from her friend Fiona Logan, they were able to source foster mare ‘Pumba’ through Logans sister, Meesha, and the mare took the young filly on as her own for eight months.

“The win was pretty good, I just wanted her to get around safely for her first start. I was glad Fi (Fiona Logan) was there to see her win after the long hours she helped put in,” Adams said.

Jocelyn Young continued the winning form for the family when her runner Pontevivo made it two wins from just five starts, with the four-year-old taking out race three.

Part-owned, trained, and driven by Young, the $3.20 favourite led up the three-wide line with 900m to go, going on to win by 5.8m in 2:00:5.

The race-to-race reign of Young domination came to end in race four with Star Boss getting the job done for Rosalind Figliomeni and Kaiden Hayter.

The nine-year-old gelding broke a 13-month winning spell after sitting on the leaders back and after taking advantage of the sprint lane at Donaldson Park, won by 2.5m in 1:56:0 over the 1609m sprint journey.

Ainsworth took out the fifth for local trainer Frank Bonnett and driver Ash Markham after leading all the way from barrier one.

In a mile rate of 2:00:2 over the 2100m, the four-year-old recorded his third win for connections at their home track.

Just a small field assembled in the standing start, with Awaitinginstruction coming out on top in the five-horse field.

Starting off the 30m handicap, the four-year-old recorded his fifth win for owner Tim Blee in just seven starts in WA.

The short-priced favourite managed to get the lead with two laps to go and it was all over, with the well performed gelding skipping away to a 17.2m victory over his rivals.

Jocelyn Young rounded out the meeting on a high, with the 28-year-old walking away with a driving double on the card when Cachinnation toughed it out in the breeze throughout to win in the last.

Making it two from three, The Debra Lewis trained three-year-old was just too good for rivals, giving favourite punters something to cheer about in race seven, and giving the Young family wins in four out of the seven races at Bunbury on Friday night.

By Ashleigh Paikos for RWWA