There will be a regular name missing from the New South Wales harness racing driving ranks over the next few months.
Popular Bathurst reinsman Mitch Turnbull making a temporary move to Queensland to assist with running the stable of his foster brother Jack Butler who is currently undergoing treatment for a serious illness.
Turnbull is a regular at Bathurst on a Wednesday night and drives at most Friday night meetings held in the Western Districts.
While his primary focus on making the temporary move north is to assist the Butler family, Turnbull has also taken a truckload of pacers to Queensland for an autumn campaign.
āWhen we found out that Jack was sick it came as a big shock,ā said Turnbull.
āI spoke with Dad and Mum, and we agreed that it would be best for me to head up and give Jack, Tara and the kids a hand with the day-to-day operation of his big team.
āWhile I have been having a good run of success and will miss some good racing that is coming up, I felt the least I could do was to head up and help my family out.
āI am not sure how long I will be here for but hopefully we can keep things rolling for Jack and I can land a winner or two in the gig.ā
byĀ Michael Dumesny, for HRNSW