A winner at 88: Age just a number for John Lee

South Australian harness racing driver John Lee admits he’s always been a competitor – and being 88 years old doesn’t change a thing!

The octogenarian this week showed great touch to land a well-supported winner at his home track Globe Derby Park and is “enjoying driving as much as ever”.

“I’m a very competitive person. It doesn’t matter whether it’s out on the trotting track or when I played other sport like football, I always give it my all,” Lee said.

“When the day comes that I’m not capable or I can’t do it right, I’ll put my hand up and give them my licence!”

But judging by his most recent win at on Monday (March 3), that’s still a way off.

Handling nine-year-old pacer Marty’s Party (Alta Christiano) in the Paceway Restaurant Saturday Night Bookings Pace, Lee eased at the start to land in the one-out and one-back sweet seat.

Marty’s Party had been backed in to start $2.15 favorite and looked the winner a long way from home.

Lee sublimely eased out three wide before the home corner and worked to the lead, with his pacer fighting on gamely to hold on by a half neck from Night Spirit who’d enjoyed a sit on Marty’s Party’s back.

Bred and raced by Lee and his daughter Tiffany, Marty’s Party has now won 15 races with 29 placings from 103 starts for $59,000.

“Tiffany drove him in his first 13 or 14 starts for three wins. But then she got busy with long days at her work and was sometimes starting at 6am, so I picked up the driving duties again,” Lee said.

“I thought the horse was being a bit cunning in the end with Tiffany and not trying all that hard, so I stood over him a bit and he’s back on track.”

Lee won on Marty’s Party at his first go and they have since teamed up to get the money at Globe Derby Park (10 victories) as well as Victor Harbour and Port Pirie (one win apiece).

“He’s got some funny little quirks that’s for sure. He’s an angel when you first put him in the bike, but you have to be very careful when he goes out onto the track,” Lee said.

“He’s the only one we’ve got in work and I’m usually up at between 6 and 6.30 each day to work him.

“There could be a few others, but I keep telling Tiffany if they aren’t good enough to make money out of, we aren’t going to get anywhere. She doesn’t like it, though.”

MARTY’S PARTY REPLAY

Lee was ranked in the top 10 as a driver in the 1960s through to the 1990s.

He started out in the sport with trainer Ron Arthur but would “listen to any advice from the greats”.  He cites Bill Shinn, Tom Butterworth, Leo Hunt (who had Young Pedro), Ernie Webb, Alby Holberton and Wally Bowyer as legendary horsemen in a golden era in South Australian harness racing.  It was a time when the Sugars, Brook, Webster and Justice teams also ranked among Australia’s most powerful stables.

Lee, who was well regarded as a good money driver, remembers it as a hugely competitive and colorful period.

“Yes, I had some punters who would put $20,000 or $30,000 on a horse. We hardly lost, but I remember Bill Shinn telling me not to worry – it was their money he said, and they had the cash to do it,” Lee recalled.

“The older trainers back then all had similar principles – and one was that they didn’t trial horses when they were ‘setting them up’. They’d compete against other better-quality horses at home to get a good gauge.”

Legend has it that back in the Wayville days, with crowds of up to 40,000 packing the tight 510-metre circuit, when the big money went on, the plunge punters didn’t even walk to watch the race.  Instead, they would line up to collect at the back of the bookie’s stand – possibly because it wasn’t unknown for bookies to run out of money when huge plunges came off!

“I didn’t drive all that often at the old Wayville track because I was just coming up in the game then – you had to weigh 10 stone then, so I had to carry a 14-pound weight on my seat!” Lee said.

“Everyone that went to the Wayville meetings knew each other and they all had their own spots to watch the races.”

Lee said the battles on the track were sometimes matched by the combat in the stewards’ room.

“I think it may have been my first horse, and I was following Stan Messenger in a race. He drifted off the fence and I went to go through, but he cut me off,” Lee said.

“I got beaten a nose, but in the stewards’ room Jack May gave evidence that Messenger hadn’t shifted out.  I got a bit wild about that and told him he should go to an optician! But I got the win!”

Lee said Scruples, a square-gaiter, was his best horse over the years.

“He would win off handicaps of 108 yards behind. He was crowned trotter of the year at both Victor Harbour and Gawler,” he said.

“One time he won at Gawler and we shoved him into the float and went across to Stawell. The smarties got 6/1 and eventually starting odds on favorite – but he won.

“We also had success with Spangled Boy, Waterproof, Jokers Wild and Sleepy Van, who cost $3000, and won every two-year-old event, bar the Sapling Stakes.”

Lee started off driving in wooden carts, then moved to the aluminium bike before now being quite at home in a speed cart.

“It probably took me eight months to get use to the latest speed cart, but now I’m alright,” he laughed.

John Lee was not always destined for a career in harness racing.

“I actually did accountancy for three years after leaving school, but the boss called me a heathen one day, because of my involvement in the trots, so I told him to stick it!  I bought a milk run which was good and I ended up selling for a nice profit,” he said.

From there Lee found his way into the farrier trade, but always lived by the rule that he wouldn’t shoe any horse on race days.

“I learnt the art of horse shoeing from a racehorse farrier, but the first one I ever did was a draught horse. I remember thinking you’ve got to be joking!  But it was the most beautiful animal, just the best to do,” he said.

“Ray and John Tassel were brilliant blacksmiths in those days and would make and shape shoes from long pieces of steel.

“I started going to riding schools and pony clubs and when I was full-time shoeing, I’d do between five and eight a day—five was comfortable, eight a bit harder.

“We actually moved to Globe Derby Park to retire, but I found I was shoeing more than ever!  My back’s been playing up so for the past two years, so I’ve only been doing my own!”

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by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink