Divine intervention in emotional win

There was a beautiful touch of serendipity in a surprise harness racing win for the Victorian White family with their square gaiter Double Dot (Feng Shuis Image) at Bendigo recently.

At outsider odds, 21-year-old Lauren White’s ninth driving win was for her grandfather Bill and in honor of her late grandmother, Betty, who had passed away two days prior to the Bendigo (Aug 28) meeting.

“We worked out that Lauren is probably fifth generation in harness racing. It’s just something that we love, we all do together, and we’ve all been involved in for all of our lives,” Bill’s son Ian said.

“It was a pretty emotional win, to say the least.”

Ian, who is also a reinsman, is the secretary of the Victorian Square Trotters Association and all of the White family are active and passionate harness racing people.

“Dad is 90 this month and he and mum were 16 when they met. Horses were always part of their life and we kids all grew up around them,” Ian said.

“Dad’s father Jack was the original trainer, but we think Jack’s dad Sammy raced what they called ‘gig’ horses back in the day.  Pa (Jack) raced some Melbourne class horses like Mystic Robert, Janes Choice and Aero Hall.”

Ian said the family trained at the Bendigo Showgrounds for many years, from a base at Eaglehawk, but by the 1970s, driving horses along the increasingly-busy roads to the track became too dangerous.

“Mum and dad and my wife Sue and I decided to buy a property together at Huntly.  It’s on 60 acres and we’ve built it up over the years, so we’ve got two tracks and a barn and everything we need out here,” Ian said.

“I’m the trotting nut.  That started because when I was beginning, I had to lease my horses and I couldn’t get a pacer that would go fast enough!” he laughed.

“I bought a trotter called Miss Tiny Tot at a sale for $500.  She was very small and at the height of her career she weighed 320 kg. She won her first race at Mooroopna going 2.21, and I didn’t think she’d ever win another race!

“But she ended up winning 13 for us and over $100K and one of her daughters Im Miss Royalty (Im Stately) gave us one of our biggest thrills providing Lauren with her first driving win in December last year.”

Ian said the family had farewelled Betty in a private service on September 5.

“Mum wasn’t hands on with the horses – I think she only sat in a sulky once and it didn’t go well!  But she was very much part of the team and helped out behind the scenes,” Ian said.

“She just loved watching all of us and any success we had – she’d get on the phone and ring all her friends. Her pleasure was seeing us go around and having some success and she and dad were both very proud of Lauren, especially, and what she’s been able to do.

“Dad had been been busy caring for mum and hadn’t been able to get to the meetings too often.  He wasn’t there for the win, but we were able to get him to the next Bendigo meeting (Sept 4). Miss Avenger (Kvintet Avenger) surprised us with a good second (at 80/1).  Quite a few of our family were there that night and it pretty emotional for him – for all of us.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink