Bernie to lead the team as Eric hopes for a grand day

Saturday (Sep. 30) will be a big occasion for Collingwood supporters as the club chases its first AFL premiership since 2010.

And it will be an even bigger day for Pies fan and prominent harness racing owner Eric Anderson, who will keep his ears on the footy while helping take a team of Julie Douglas-trained horses to the annual post-grand final meeting at Mildura.

“There’s only two sorts of supporters: Collingwood and those that wish they were,” Anderson says with a laugh.

The star of the Douglas convoy is undoubtedly Bernie Winkle (Rock N Roll Heaven), the 301-start veteran who has won more races than any other pacer at the Sunraysia venue.

He claimed his 64^th career victory and 41^st at Mildura when he prevailed in the Congratulations Bernie Winkle 300^th Race Pace on September 8 and returns to the scene of that triumph following a seventh placing in a hot free-for-all at Melton last weekend.

While he’s now a rising 10-year-old, Anderson said there was no end in sight for the evergreen son of Rock N Roll Heaven.

“He’s working as good as he ever has and he’s very sound. There’s no issues there with him, so we’ll just keep going,” he said.

Anderson has raced many great horses over the years and rates 1992 Miracle Mile winner Franco Tiger as the best of those, but not far behind – for the sheer ride he’s enjoyed over many years – is Bernie Winkle.

“He’d certainly sit in the top half-dozen,” he said.

“There’s no question, he certainly won’t be going anywhere else when he retires. He’ll stay home.

“We’ve still got Bold Cruiser. He was a loveable old horse and Glenn (Douglas) feeds him every day.”

Anderson purchased Bernie Winkle out of New Zealand in early 2016, and while he’s always been an accomplished pacer, the gelding really rose to fame through the COVID-19 regional racing period. He won his first 10 starts for caretaker trainer Geoff Lucas in 2020 and quickly established himself as the undisputed “King of Mildura”.

“I have agents in New Zealand that ring me with horses to buy. They asked if I wanted Bernie Winkle, he was $45,000 and we bought him,” Anderson recalls.

“Standing starts were around then and he was a very good standing start horse.”

Bernie Winkle was, in fact, the last winner of a standing start pace here in Victoria before they were eliminated from the racing calendar in 2016.

He prevailed from behind the tapes at Ballarat on August 31 of that year and has gone on to win a staggering 57 more races since.

Bernie Winkle will line-up in Saturday night’s Prostate Cancer Foundation Pace, where he will meet stablemate Ozzie Battler, the well-fancied Hot Deal from the Aaron Dunn stable and Lachlan Prothero’s new acquisition Blue Chip Delight among others.

The features on the Mildura card include the $20,000 Collie and Tierney Northern Region Championship Final for those horses that qualified from heats at Swan Hill and Ouyen, as well as the $12,000 MHRC Mildura Guineas for the three-year-old pacers.

Luke Humphreys will call all the action for TrotsVision, with the first event of 12 kicking off from 5.37pm.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria