Interstate raids are the norm for Hart

Fresh from yet another feature-race success, premier reinsman Cameron Hart makes a low-key comeback to harness racing at Menangle today (Jan. 10) with just three drives on the seven-race program.

Hart won Saturday night’s Group 2 Bendigo Cup piloting six-year-old gelding Major Meister (Art Major) for all-conquering trainer Jason Grimson, scoring a 1.9m win over Sicario and Max Delight over the 2650m journey.

The former Riverina reinsman won an incredible 205 races in the 2022 season and as he begins his eighth season of driving has a mountain to climb as he looks to continue a record of driving more winners every season than the one before.

Two of Hart’s drives at Menangle today will be for David Waite, the Thirlmere trainer who helped give Hart a start in Sydney when he first made the move from the country.

The first of those will be Ultimate Ad (Ultimate Falcon) in Race 2, where he has been rated a $7.50 chance in early markets.

The veteran former Queensland pacer has never won at Menangle, but has several Penrith wins to his credit and has the gate speed to take advantage of his best draw for months and should be prominent throughout.

Hart also drives handy mare Louisiana Freedom (Lombo Mandingo) for Waite in Race 3 and she too has been kept safe in the betting at $7.50.

Although she does have nine wins on her resume, Louisiana Freedom is another yet to score at Menangle.

Hart’s third drive is Top The Ace ($8) for Trevor Munday in Race 6.

It’s been a historic run for Hart, winning the Inter Dominion in Victoria with I Cast No Shadow before Saturday night’s win at Bendigo.

And the gun reinsman admitted his chances of success looked pretty forlorn when he struck trouble running into the back of an ailing Rock N Roll Doo during Saturday’s race.

“I’m not sure what happened to Mick Stanley’s horse, whether he choked down or something, but I could see from a long way out that he was trying to bring it up the track,” said Hart.

“I ended up going straight up the back of him.

“It was an amazing win. I thought my race was over once that happened.

“Luckily, he still kept pacing . . . he was hanging pretty badly on the last corner as well but was still strong enough to fight on up the straight. I was super happy with him.”

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Court, for Harness Racing New South Wales