A special win brings memories of mateship

If you could bottle the passion that the late Terry “Lofty” Wait had for harness racing, it would overflow anyone’s cellar!

His big frame, and a broad smile to boot, was his trademark when he turned up at meetings to cheer on his horses.

“Terry was very knowledgeable and absolutely loved the trots. He’d stop and talk to anyone who wanted to have a chat about trots,” close friend and co-owner Tony Eley said.

“He never had a bad word to say about anyone. He was such a terrific person.”

Wait passed away in May 2022 at age 78, but Eley said a recent win with a horse Terry bred stirred a lot of mixed emotions.

Two-year-old gelding Telern Lofty (Vincent) was driven a treat by trainer-driver David Miles to take out the Easywaste Maiden Pace at Ballarat on September 5.

“We’re so happy it provided a lot of memories of Terry through racing his breed and because the horse was named after him and won in Terry’s colors as well,” Eley said.

The pacer is out of Telern Pepper (He’s Watching) and is raced by the Estate of Terry Wait, along with Tony Eley, John Suffern, Jim Grant and Bob Adamson.

Wait, Eley and Suffern established the Telern moniker, made up from their names, and raced about 50 horses together from the early 1970s.

“The recent win by ‘Lofty’ was my 201^st, while Terry would have had more than that because he raced a few horses on his own as well,” Eley said.

He said the friendship between the three had started through football at West Preston YCW.

“Terry and I played, and John was on the committee. Terry was a great friend and also a very protective footy teammate – I remember getting pushed over once and he was right there to stick up for me and make sure it never happened again!” Eley said.

“Terry was actually the one who got the three of us together in the syndicate. We were at a footy club function having a few beers and John and I were talking about horses because we both enjoyed going to the Melbourne Showgrounds meetings.

“The annual sales were coming up and that’s where racing horses together got started, back in about 1971.”

Eley said Terry held a trainer’s licence for a time and did some preparation work with the horses at his Lancefield property where he had a small jog track.

“I think he got involved through Don Dove and then later we had a great association with a good horseman Russ Thomson when he was at Moama. We enjoyed a lot of success, particularly with Telern Tim in 1983-87 (16 wins, 32 placings for $85K) and then probably our best one was Country Duke in 1996-2000 (18 wins, 27 placings for $181K),” he said.

“Duke competed in a New Zealand Inter-Dominion series in 2000 and ran second in a heat to Christian Cullen, but didn’t make the final.”

The group later became associated with David Miles, who was a neighbor to Terry.

“We’ve had horses with David including Louis Sedgwick which won 15 races between 2016-2020,” Eley said.

“It’s exciting to be involved in a horse named after Terry and to wear his old race colors with a horse bearing the Telern name was special. David had them and he organized it all, which was terrific.

Miles said he was proud to get a victory with Telern Lofty, named after “the great Terry (Lofty) Wait”.

“The horse goes along okay, but we decided to tip him out because he’s a little bit immature. I actually worked his mum, who had ability, but she broke down after an accident in a fence,” Miles said.

“Terry loved his racing and was super knowledgeable.  I did use his common sense, and his ability to see both sides, as a barometer.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink