Jack on the road to success with a ton

Well-travelled Victorian young gun Jack Laugher has cracked the ton for the first time in his relatively short driving career – and sits second on the State Metropolitan Drivers’ Premiership to boot.

Bendigo-based Laugher also now finds himself up in the top half dozen on the national premiership table, rubbing shoulders with some elite company.

The 22-year-old, who learnt his craft back in Tasmania while working with his father Michael, has shown vast improvement since first taking the reins back in the 2015/16 season.

“I think I had 100 drives in my maiden season to get just three winners,” he laughed.

“In hindsight I should have waited a bit – I did all the trials and then went straight into it.

“Dad didn’t have much going at the time and I was getting put on plenty of long-priced runners to drive by others. But I was learning!”

However, in the following seasons, the talented youngster has continued to improve on numbers from the preceding season.

Laugher said he was now lucky to be driving better class horses.

“Along with the usuals, I’m also being used by a few of the in-form stables and I’m now second stringer for the Julie Douglas team as well,” he said.

“I had a good run for a bit and then copped a few lots of suspensions. I got my 100th winner at Mildura, which is a place that has been really good to me.

“It would be one of my favorite tracks. But I like any track where I’m winning on!”

Laugher has always shown he’s prepared to travel far and wide to fulfill driving engagements.

“If anyone puts me on, I’m on the road and off. I’ll help anyone out,” he said.

The national top 20 wins for the season as of (July 14) is:
PETER MCMULLEN Qld 144
GARY HALL JNR WA 127
NATHAN DAWSON QLD 117
KATE GATH VIC 113
GREG SUGARS VIC 112
JACK LAUGHER VIC 103
DANIELLE HILL SA 102
JACK TRAINOR NSW 102
CHRIS ALFORD VIC 96
CHRISTOPHER VOAK WA 94
LUKE MCCARTHY QLD 93
ANGUS GARRARD QLD 91
CAMERON HART NSW 90
GRANT DIXON QLD 85
AMANDA TURNBULL NSW 82
ROBERT MORRIS NSW 82
SHANE GRAHAM QLD 82
JAMES HERBERTSON VIC 81
EMILY SUVALJKO WA 80
RYAN WARWICK WA 79

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink