O’Sullivan’s sulky skills shine in Bendigo feature

Astute Bendigo harness racing horseman Jim O’Sullivan doesn’t do a lot of race driving these days, but his competitive streak came to the fore in the recent Oxley Feed Mill Veteran Drivers Trot feature at his home track.

O’Sullivan’s stellar career was marked though his association with superstar pacers of the past such as Quite Famous, My Lightning Blue, Its Motor Power, Margaret Shannon and Our Brenray.

And while the Bendigo feature win last Wednesday (Dec 4) behind 25/1 outsider Majestic Ga Ga (Majestic Son), might not rank up there with O’Sullivan’s Inter Dominion and Gr 1 successes, the feature was no doubt a welcome opportunity to reflect and to polish off the sulky skills again.

O’Sullivan worked hard early to get to the front from barrier 2, but then dropped anchor in a winning move in the $10,000 ratings exempt event.

“I decided to back off and go a bit slower after the early burn. Then when the race favorite come around, I did think of letting it go, but I’m glad I didn’t as she just kept going,” O’Sullivan said.

“I’ve had a few runs in the veteran drivers’ race before, but it was a big thrill to finally win it for Mary-Jane (trainer, Mary-Jane Mifsud). I’ve shod horses now and again for her over the years and it was a great result because she also won earlier in the night with Velvetnlace (Modern Art) which was her first-ever double.

“Our reinsman son Sean does his form pretty good, though, and he told me on the morning he thought I had a big chance – so he was spot on.”

O’Sullivan scored by two metres over 3/1 favorite No Telling Heather (Geoff Webster), with Magic Law (Ginger Gleeson) filling third placing. Other drivers competing included Mark Hayes, Ross Payne, Brian Gath, Glenn Conroy, Ken Tippet, Neil McCallum and Rita Burnett.

O’Sullivan rode high in the 1980s and 1990s with some sensational pacers, but he’s also done very well with the square-gaiters.

“I wouldn’t have any idea just how many races I’ve won on trotters, but it would be a good few,” he said.

“Probably the first one that comes to mind would be a Kiwi trotter named Yankee Loch. I drove him three times for two heat wins and then we won the 1989 Inter Dominion Final at Moonee Valley. We beat True Roman, driven by the late Gavin Lang.

“Another one was Post Script, which had won city races as a pacer. They switched it to trotting and wanted me to have a go with it. I reckon I ended up winning eight with it.”

O’Sullivan was destined to be part of harness racing from the day he was born, as legend has it, in a tent at the Lismore Showgrounds while his dad, Bill, was racing horses.

“We toured around the NSW northern rivers area for five months each year with dad competing on the show circuit.  That was in towns like Kyogle, Casino, Murwillumbah and Mullumbimby.

“Mum apparently said to dad that she needed to get to hospital, but he said he still had three horses to race!

“We lived like Gypsies at all the Showgrounds and later, when I was older, I was home schooled. Show trots was huge back then – even not all that many years ago I can remember there was 10,000 people watching us race at the Brisbane Show.

“The mums and dads would be tired with the kids and sit down and watch the trots. It was the greatest advertisement for the sport – and it was free.

“In the early days, dad trained at Parkes but would race against the top guys in Sydney. He did pretty well out of it and when he was just 19, he landed the winner of the Kedron 1000 at Kedron Park (Brisbane) – the biggest race held in 1926, worth 1000 pounds. That was huge money back then.

“In 1941, he was the second leading reinsmen and had some pretty good success before the war broke out.”

Jim was 15 when he started working horses and his first winning drive was at Queensland’s Rocklea in 1964 with George’s Reject.

“I was with Sam Zammit, who was a leading trainer, from the early 1960s.  I was his foreman for a bit,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan was Australia’s leading trainer in 1978 and 1979 and leading Qld driver in ’79 with 110 wins. He was inducted into the Qld Hall of Fame in 2006.

After getting his career established up north, O’Sullivan moved to Victoria in the 1980s. He went back to Queensland’s Gold Coast in the 2000s then decided Victoria was home in 2011.

He won two Inter Dominions-the 1987 Pacers Final (and NZ Cup) with My Lightning Blue and the 1989 Trotting Final with Yankee Loch.

O’Sullivan is married Terresa, and they have two harness racing children, Shannon and Sean.

In 2017, he was awarded the Gordon Rothacker medal and six years later was inducted into the Victorian Harness Racing Hall of Fame.

O’Sullivan has over 2000 wins, including 10 Group Ones and stakes of more than $5.2M.

“I still enjoy the driving part, but I’ve taken a backseat in recent years with our daughter Shannon (now overseas) taking it on and now Sean is going okay at it. I really only drive our scallywags that everyone has in their stable at times.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink