Four winners pushes Elder to 400

A quartet of wins at Newcastle on Monday pushed Maitland harness racing driver Brad Elder’s career wins to 400.

The milestone was reached after he steered What Now Shannon, CC Jones, A Paradigm Shift and Its Allabout Alice to victory. See the results here.

“Not a bad result for a battler,” said Elder.

“And it could have been five winners, I was beaten a head with Baby Ginnie!

“That’s the third time I’ve driven four winners at a meeting before.

“I knew I was getting close to 400 winners and it was great to get the result.

“It was a day of mixed emotions though as it was my Nan’s funeral that morning but it ended on a high.

“I’m sure Nan gave me some strength to get me over the line.

“She was always at the races and was a big supporter of mine.”

Elder has had a great start to the season having already steered 48 winners.

“I always have a goal to get 52 winners a season as that would give me a win a week,” said Elder.

“I lost my claim two-and-a-half years ago and thought it’s all over now but now that I’m close to 50 this season, I want to aim for 100 winners.

“I’ll just have to keep on putting in the hard yards.”

Elder began driving in the 2013/14 season.

He keeps busy helping his father Darren Elder train a team of horses as well as working for Spectrum, a horse supplement company.

“I’m a bit of a jack of all trades,” said Elder.

“I’ve learnt a lot working at Spectrum – it’s all herbal products that are used on horses, dogs and even camels in Dubai.”

Elder will continue that hard work at Newcastle tonight with drives in eight of the 10 races.

“I think the two-year-old filly Flare Up will be hard to beat,” he said.

“She won well first up and won half of her purchase price back thanks to all the bonuses.

“She’s blue bred so it makes it worthwhile.

“I also think Shezabluechip is a strong chance even though she’s drawn wide.”

By Amanda Rando for Harnesslink