Dylan Egerton-Green joins the 1000 win club

Dylan Egerton-Green joins an elite few, with the 31-year-old claiming his 1000th harness racing driving success on Friday night at Gloucester Park.

Driving in fantastic form, he didn’t sit on the remarkable feat for long, with wins 1001 and 1002 coming to fruition this weekend as well.

Egerton-Green, who brought up the win on Friday night on board Belleza Nera (Rock N Roll Heaven) in the first race at Gloucester Park, celebrated a training and driving double early on in the night, with Otis winning the third event, backing it up the following night at Northam with Im Lightning Banner NZ.

Making his driving debut during the 2010/2011 season, hitting the ground running with six wins in his opening season.

Continuing to grow each year, he went on to celebrate 20 wins the following year, and during the 2018/2019 season, his career surged, with the young driver celebrating his first 100 in a season, with 138 wins under his belt, which he said was his first goal in the industry.

Starting in the pony trots at around nine years of age, Egerton-Green spent six years in the sulky behind Moon Shadow before he made the step up to the full-sized horses and sulkies, eventually making the move up to Perth from Harvey to live with Chloe and the Brown family, a decision that proved fruitful in more ways than one.

Dylan worked for Colin Brown for many years before he branched out on his own, and has since established his own property in Serpentine, as well as Chloe and himself welcoming their first child Nash in December 2023, a life changing experience for the now 31-year-old.

“As much to his mothers (Chloe) disgust, I just want to train long enough to see Nash drive his first winner, then I can retire.” He joked.

Egerton-Green has a great team of staff beside him, but he was quick to mention that he couldn’t do any of this without the support and all the work behind the scenes from Chloe Brown.

No stranger to the highest thrills on offer in this industry, Dylan Egerton-Green has driven nine group one winners, including the $450,000 TABTouch WA Pacing Cup on Mighty Conqueror NZ, the $120,000 WA Oaks and the $200,000 WA Derby all in the 2020 season, just to name a few.

“I’ve driven Beautide and got it beat, and then he went on to win two Inter Dominions and a Miracle Mile.”

When questioned if that was a highlight, he responded “Definitely, he is probably the best horse I’ve driven.”

Dylan was given the opportunity the champion standardbred in 2013 when he represented WA in the Young HRC Rising Stars Series, finishing second by a head in the $40,000 Group 3.

In recent years, he has turned his focus towards training, which he said had taken away opportunities of freelancing driving, but over the years he has many people to thank, including Colin Brown, Greg and Skye Bond who gave him the opportunity to drive many top quality horses over the years, and now in more recent times, Rob Tomlinson and the Oz-West Pacing group who have given him numerous training opportunities, with two of the three winners over the weekend owned by the prominent ownership group.

Although no longer driving as many horses as he was in previous years, Saturday nights win brought up his 50th driving success this season, and his 40th training win this season as well.

2022 was a big year for his stable, with Zephyra winning the Gr1 2YO Diamond Classic final, as well as the 2YO Westbred Classic for the fillies, all within a month, and earlier this year, the now four-year-old claimed the Gr 2 4YO Westbred Mares Classic, but it was a maiden race in December 2020 that put him under the most pressure he’s experienced in the sport.

“Hayden told me he had put the house Thomson Bay and it’s the most pressure I’ve ever had on me.”

Egerton-Green heads to Pinjarra today with two drives on his book, with his own runner in race three, Nase Vira, and then Its Justa Shotaway in race six for Colin Brown.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA