Conolly racking up the wins quickly

Joe Conolly has used harness racing as an escape from his intense day-to-day life as a detective in the police force of New South Wales.

But things are quickly escalating for the 35-year-old horseman, who has trained 55 of his 80 career winners in the past two seasons.

“The horses are just a hobby for me,” Conolly told SENTrack’s Trots Life. “I work full time elsewhere, so this is just something I play around with on the side.

“But over time, we’ve managed to build the team up, get some nicer horses in and get some more numbers in which obviously helps get your winners ticking over.

“We’ve grown the last couple of years. I’ve had both Seaton and younger brother Bryson Grima, the boys have come on board. Now we’re building the team together and we’re starting to get some results from it.”

One of the major reasons behind Conolly’s recent run of success is veteran pacer Art Tutor (Art Major).

Conolly said he bought the son of Art Major from Western Australia on a “hunch” that he’d perform well over the mile trip at Menangle. And since bringing him to New South Wales, the bay horse has won nine races for Conolly Family Racing and taken his career record to 19 victories from 152 starts for almost $200,000 in prizemoney.

“I got him right at the end of his five-year-old season,” Conolly said.

“He’s definitely a curious horse, probably one of the more difficult horses I’ve trained.

“He comes and goes a little bit. I think what we’re learning this year is that he just likes the hot weather more than anything else. I can’t put it down to anything other than that.

“He seems to come good in the summer time and then hibernates over the winter, but when he’s on he’s certainly a horse that can run.”

Art Tutor tackled his first big Victorian country cup last weekend in Bendigo and was more than competitive at big odds.

He’ll back-up in the Shepparton Gold Cup this Saturday, with Seaton Grima taking the reins from barrier one.

“We will come out this week as hard as we can, probably at least for the first couple of hundred and just see where we land,” Conolly said.

“I’m not too sure how to map this one out. There’s a mixed line of speed on this front row, so I’m not sure who’s going to get there first and how far back we’re going to be, but we will certainly be holding the best spot we can.”

Conolly also has stablemates Zahven Banner and Spirit Of Anzac running on the Shepparton card.

Jason Bonnington, Nikkita Ross, Shannon O’Sullivan and Kima Frenning will be part of Saturday night’s TrotsVision coverage, with the first of eight races to go at 6.34pm.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Tim O’Connor, for HRV