Home track the ticket for longshot maiden win

Mick Bolam has had only a handful of starters as a harness racing trainer but admits there was still more than a touch of relief to get his first training and driving win ticked off at Parkes on Friday night (Jul. 21).

Bolam has had only five starters as a trainer but around 35 as a driver since taking up the sport in a hands-on capacity two years ago.

“I’ve run second a couple of times, and especially as a driver you start to wonder when you get close, and it just gets snatched away in the last stride!” he said.

But the 36-year-old sat patiently behind 25/1 shot Peaksart (Artspeak) at his home track and extracted the gelding from behind the leader to grab victory in the last stride in the Worklocker Parkes Pace.

“I think I was more excited than he was after the race – I don’t think he could really believe he’d done it!” said Bolam’s partner and Peaksart’s owner Hannah Ross.

“But I think he knew something – as I let the horse go to go out on the track, he told me we’d better make sure we had some celebratory beers for later.  That’s very unlike him – he’s very quiet and unassuming usually, so I was pretty hopeful, but I told him to just get the job done first!” she said.

“But it was so exciting to get the win.”

Peaksart was purchased for the purposes of Bolam completing his trial drives to obtain his licence – but the horse’s form suggested he was worth a try at the races.

“It was only his fourth start back from a spell and he’d run a couple of good thirds at his first two.  He’s pretty much a one-man horse, I think – he loves Mick and he’s quite a different horse with him than with me,” Hannah said.

Mick, who is a partner in a large earthmoving business at Parkes, made the move from Trundle when he met Hannah, and the couple are setting up a property for the “long term” in the sport.

“We’ve got a track and day yards – but haven’t quite made it to stables yet. It’s a set up that will get us by for now, until we’ve got time to get the other things we’d like to have,” Mick said.

“My business is pretty busy, so I can really only manage one or two.  I’d love to have 10 in work, but I just wouldn’t be able to find the time to do any more. We’re lucky we have help from my brother Bradley (Watt) and a friend Adam Hall, who both have stablehand licenses.”

Mick said he’d always been interested in harness racing, but until now hadn’t been in the position to get into training.

“I grew up at Trundle and used to ride my bike to help a trainer there when I was a teenager.  My uncle Peter Wright was in the sport for 20 years and loved it, so that’s where my interest came from.  I’ve been helping him out and had drives for him once I got my driver’s licence,” he said.

“The first horse we bought was Runpoprun (Smiling Shard) and he won at his first start for us – so that kind of got us hooked!”

Hannah is involved in barrel racing and her family is well known for breeding quarter horses.  She hadn’t had any involvement with harness racing before she met Mick – but will she make a complete switch?

“Well, I am enjoying it, and I think if I am being honest, I’ve been spending more time with Peaksart than my competition horse.  I’ve retired my competition horse, so Mick and harness racing has me 100 percent…at the moment!”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink