Langs honored at Bendigo’s ‘hot to trot’ night

Square-gaiting purists are in for an extravaganza next Wednesday night (Nov 27) when the Bendigo Harness Racing Club hosts a full night of trotting and honors past Victorian legends father-and-son Graeme and Gavin Lang.

It will be the third year the club has staged the Lang memorial night, but it’s introduced new features this year which should put some cracking times on the board and entice some of the State’s topline square-gaiting juveniles.

“The night’s a real highlight for us each year because the impact both Graeme and Gavin had on our industry – it’s second to none,” club general manager Erik Hendrix said.

“It’s aimed at lifting the profile of square-gaiters as well as celebrating and honoring what the Lang family has done for racing – it’s a great way to bring them both together,” he said.

The Graeme Lang Aldebaran Park 2YO Trotting Mile for fillies and the Gavin Lang 2yo Trotting Mile for colts and geldings are the $20,000 headline events.

Also on the program will be the Scotch Notch 3YO mile for fillies and a Wagon Apollo 3YO mile for colts and geldings both worth $10,000.

Hendrix said the club had programmed all of the feature events over the sprint trip with the goal of smashing track records.

He said the opportunity to incentivise some quick times for juvenile trotters supports the ambitious global goals of major Bendigo HRV sponsor Aldebaran Park and its principal Duncan McPherson.

Aldebaran Park aims to internationalise and grow the trotting product for the benefit of the industry and McPherson is acutely aware of the influence two- and three-year-old times have on the commercial values of broodmares and stallions.

Hendrix said the Bendigo trotting night was the result of an approach he and McPherson had made to HRV several years ago

“Duncan is a great advocate of the trotters and works hard at creating a pathway internationally,” Hendrix said.

“We’ve built a great relationship with him and it’s special thanks to him and the team, along with Harness Racing Victoria, who have all been instrumental in putting the night together,” he said.

“Along with the features, there’s races to cater for most classes, so we’re hoping owners and trainers support what promises to be a fantastic night to remember the contributions by the Langs, along with their families.”

Gavin Lang died in April of 2020, aged 61, after a fight with a rare type of lymphoma. He drove 6303 winners and earned the moniker Group I Gav for his ability to perform on the grand stage.

He began driving horses at home with his brother Chris (now one of the sport’s greats) as an eight-year-old, and always said he never imagined doing anything but trots.

He registered his first driving win on Pensive Dream on June 2, 1975, and for the next 32 years showed his extraordinary brilliance in the sulky, with memorable victories including the 2007 Victoria Cup with Robin Hood, two Inter Dominion Trotting Championships and an extraordinary list of Breeders Crown, Chariots Of Fire, Australian Pacing Gold, Vicbred Super Series and New South Wales Derby triumphs.

Gavin reflected that driving “becomes second nature; making moves is a reflex action. You do everything on instinct”.

Graeme Lang died three weeks after his son and was aged 87. A brilliant trainer and driver, he was an elite horseman from the 1960s through to the ‘80s and is probably most remembered for training “freak” pacing bred trotter Scotch Notch (Scottish Bret) a winner of 65 races.

Affectionately known as “Daddy Lang”, Graeme was the Gordon Rothacker Medallist in 2013, and a 1998 inductee into the Caduceus Club’s Hall of Fame.

He was five times Victoria’s leading trainer, twice crowned Victoria’s leading driver and in 1979-80 was the leading Australian driver.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink