Jason Grimson etches his name amongst harness racing immortality

A change of gear could possibly be the catalyst that saw Jason Grimson train his second Inter Dominion Pacing Championship Grand Final winner and etch his name amongst harness racing immortality.

The 29-year-old decided to leave some head gear off his Shadow Play entire I Cast No Shadow in tonight’s $500,000 feature at Melton – a move only the brave and a seasoned mind would make heading into a Group 1 that paid off.

“I had a plan a week out, I just changed his gear and left the pull-downs (sliding blinds) off,” said Grimson.

“He had a perfect draw and it was a perfect drive.”

Perhaps it was the draw that helped too with Grimson plucking number one for I Cast No Shadow at the barrier draw function earlier in the week.

When it was race time, driver Cameron Hart let I Cast No Shadow work out of the gate before handing up to the race favourite Act Now.

As anticipated the well-backed Expensive Ego worked his way outside the pacemaker in a lead time of 87.6 – more than a second slower than what was run in the Inter Dominion Trotting Championship Grand Final.

The next three quarters were 30.6, 28 and 26.4 seconds and all Hart had to do was wait until the home turn to let I Cast No Shadow loose in the sprint lane.

From there I Cast No Shadow overcame a final quarter of 27.6 to win by more than two metres to beat the first emergency Torrid Saint and Act Now in third.

The mile rate for the 2760m test was 1:56.7.

I CAST NO SHADOW REPLAY

“I can’t believe it to be honest,” said the 23-year-old Hart.

“Growing up as a kid that’s all you aspire to do and it’s great to do it with Jase too, he’s such a good mate of mine.

“I had a lot of faith in this horse and when he came up with barrier one I thought we had a shot.

“He moved so well and it just worked out so good at the start.

“He had such a good kick that when he got into the sprint lane I had to make sure he didn’t hit Jodi’s (Quinlan) wheel, that would have been embarrassing.

“Jase is such a great horseman, even tonight he made a gear change.”

Grimson has now trained six Group 1 winners and that was Hart’s seventh Group 1 success.

Grimson won last year’s Inter Dominion Grand Final with Boncel Benjamin at Menangle and marks his name alongside Mark Purdon, James Rattray, Gary Hall Snr, Natalie Rasmussen, Brian Hancock, Bob Knight, Leo O’Connor and Tony ‘A.D’ Turnbull to train back-to-back Inter Dominion Pacing Grand Final winners.

For complete results and race replays, click here.

by Amanda Rando, for Harnesslink