Elley-May is all set for her driving debut

Eighteen-year-old Elley-May Adams is pumped and ready to go at tomorrow night’s (April 1) Mildura harness racing meeting.

“I’m really excited and looking forward to it,” Adams, of Broken Hill, said.

The teenager will partner five-year-old gelding Super Dry (Ultimate Art) in race two and six-year-old gelding Village Lover (Village Jolt) in race four competing in her first ever events as a driver.

“Mum’s got all the nerves for me. When I showed her my actual driving licence, she said ‘now the nerves have really hit home’! I’m feeling okay – I’m approaching it as just another trials night,” Elley-May said.

“I drove Shaggy (stablename for Village Lover) in three trials at Broken Hill and then travelled the 300 kms down and back to Mildura to do the rest,” Elley-May said.

Elley-May races Village Lover in partnership with a neighbor, Michael Honson, who has been a trainer-driver in the sport for many years and is President of the Broken Hill Harness Racing Club.

Elley-May, who says she’s been around horses ever since she was born, said her mum’s parents and an uncle were into thoroughbreds back in Port Augusta.

” I’ve been competing at gymkhanas, shows and rodeos for a while now, mostly barrel racing.  It’s just me competing, and mum does all the behind the scene work like driving, and doing all the waters, feeds and other little jobs,” she said.

“Mum and I pack up two or three horses and off we go. We’ve travelled to South Australia, Victoria and other parts of New South Wales on most weekends. We do thousands of kilometres – it’s like a full-time job.”

Elley-May got the harness racing bug after meeting well-known Sunraysia horsewoman Kate Attard.

“Kate does body therapy with horses and I went down to get some body work done on some of our horses,” she said.

“Kate suggested that I could start working for her with the aim of getting my race drivers licence. I thought that it might be fun and when I had a free weekend I’d go down and help her – it just grew from there.”

“I’ve been trying to watch as many races as I can. I take notes on some of the top drivers and then watch replays later to see how it all panned out,” she said.

“Everyone has been so supportive, Kate has especially been awesome – she gave us Village Lover.  Michael has been so great as well.  I’ve driven both of the horses I’m on at Mildura in the trials and they’re pretty placid and easy going.”

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink