De Goey hoping for a spot in world’s richest harness race

AS Collingwood builds towards what most expect will be another AFL Grand Final appearance, a harness racing horse named after one of the Magpies’ biggest stars could be headed to a grand final of his own.

De Goey (Captaintreacherous), named after Collingwood’s game-busting on-baller Jordan De Goey, can book a slot in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka, by winning the $80,000 Beautide at Hobart on Saturday night.

And it will be some sort of fairy tale given Do Goey is the lone racehorse the once major player Rohan Hadley has in work these days.

“I’m down to just the one broodmare (Jokers Wild Card) and her progeny these days,” Hadley said. “At the peak, when I was training for Chester Bullock, I’d have had 20 or more in work.

“These days, I’ve got a full-time job for a Brisbane-based company who sell cattle, and I own some farms down here. That keeps me busy enough.”

It’s half a miracle, or more so Hadley’s love of horses, that has kept him connected to the game at all.

He bought Jokers Wild Card for just $200 when the mares’ owners had run out of patience after 22 starts netted just one win, a second and a third.

“She had ability and I had her going quite well at home, but she went awful away from home, and they’d had enough so I bought her,” Hadley said. “She had ability, but didn’t put in at the races after being asked to do a lot early in her career.

“I retired her and decided to breed from her and De Goey is only her second foal. The first, Living On A Prare, had ability, too (three wins and six placings from 20 starts), but had a problem with tying-up.

“I gave De Goey to Barrie Rattray, who is a good mate, to do the early work with and he liked him a lot.”

De Goey, by buzz stallion Captaintreacherous, scored his fourth win from just seven starts, along with three placings, and took his earnings to $45,505 with a hard-fought win at Launceston last Sunday night.

It stamped him as a major player, especially from gate three, in the Beautide.

Another of Hadley’s mates, Rohan Hillier, has driven Do Goey in all seven starts, but will switch to his own runner, Baby You A Song,

“I’ll have to pull the silks back on myself for this race, but I knew that all along,” Hadley said.

“He’s getting better and stronger all the time this fella and I’m sure he’ll be very competitive, but he doesn’t know how to run the gate yet, so I just hope I don’t get shuffled too far back.

“And it’s not easy for the three-year-olds, taking on the four-year-olds, even with a preferential draw. Match practice and ringcraft is certainly against my guy.”

Hadley, a passionate Collingwood fan, said the De Goey name was the second choice.

“We’d have gone for Pendlebury, but it was already taken,” he laughed. “I do love watching De Goey play, though. Even if he doesn’t get the ball, he makes his presence felt.

“He and the team are having a good season and I think they’ll learn a fair bit from losing (to Carlton) last weekend.”

Just as De Goey the pacer will learn a lot from tackling the Beautide.

“He sure will. I think he’ll just keep getting better with experience against the better horses,” Hadley said.

And what he wins and gets Tasracing’s slot in the TAB Eureka, which comes with victory in the Beautide?

“Ring me then and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Hadley laughed.

With Harness Racing Victoria kicking-off its new “short course” series next week, Tasmania will do something similar in November.

Victoria’s FastTrack 1200m series runs across a string of races and three Wednesday night meetings at Melton through August.

Tasmania has a 10-race card with all races run over just 1140m and only six runners on November 10.

From Harness Racing Australia