Anya Whitelaw of the Western Advocate writes: when Mat Rue was growing up working in his parents’ harness racing stables he dreamed of one day being able to drive a winner – well he’s done that and then some.

On Friday night (Aug. 5) at the Parkes Harness Racing Club meeting as Rue saluted aboard $3.10 favourite Art Legend (Modern Art), it marked the 1,000^th winning drive of his career.

MILESTONE MAN: Mat Rue drove the 1,000th winner of his career on Friday night when saluting with Art Legend at Parkes. Photo: COFFEE PHOTOGRAPHY AND FRAMING — **Mat Rue (Coffee Photography Photo)**

The affable 32-year-old laughed and said it was a good milestone to get “out of the road”, but the broad smile on his face as he crossed the finish line showed what it meant to him.

“It’s good to get it out of the road, when harness racing first put a thing about it there were 12 to go and sometimes 12 can take awhile to notch up, luckily for me it went reasonably quick,” he said.

“It’s pretty cool, 1,000 races is a lot of races to be in, let alone winning that many. There’s been a lot of late nights and early mornings to get to that.

“When you’re kicking off you don’t think things like that are going to happen. I was just happy to get out there and get a win, you’re never sure how it’s going to go for you, so you just want to get amongst it and see where it takes you.”

ART LEGEND REPLAY

To read the full story, click here.

by Anya Whitelaw, republished from the Western Advocate

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