Queensland Harness Racing Wrap

Catch up on the week’s harness racing action in our weekly review, thanks to Darren Clayton.

THE GOOD

The Ricky Gordon-trained and driven Major Paint (Major Bronski) ended a 16 year hoodoo at Redcliffe on Thursday with the distinctive coloured pacer claiming victory through the passing lane.

Owned by Gordon’s partner Lacey Hinze, coloured pacers are very rare and those with the ability to win are even more scarce.

White Fire was the last skewbald pacer to win a race in Queensland on October 10, 2006.

Major Paint was able to claim the maiden breaking victory at his 14th race start, darting through to stop the clock in a mile-rate of 2.00.9, becoming the first skewbald successful under race conditions in Queensland since White Fire’s lone victory.

“It has taken a lot of patience to get him to this point,” Lacey said.

“Rick deserves most of the credit, I did what I could with him, but Rick is so good with younger horses, even though he is not young now, he is still young in the head but he gave him the right education.”

Another component that might just have helped the five-year-old was the time spent at the Royal Brisbane Show, or Ekka as it is known.

Although Show wins are not credited to a horses official career statistics, Major Paint technically won his first race back in August at the Ekka.

“The Ekka definitely helped him and he stayed in there during the week, that show racing can certainly help a horse and it has for him,” Hinze said.

“And, they loved him in there, he was popular in there and I had a lot of people asking about him when he finishes racing.”

Given what he achieved on Thursday and how the five-year-old has been improving, there are still plenty of racing days ahead of the entire.

“We will take each day as it comes, we know he is no superstar, but he is something different and there are no plans for him at this stage,” she said.

“He is more of a pet to us and has a really good temperament, my son R Jaye is six years old and he can walk him around without any trouble.”

Not specifically looking for a skewbald pacer at the time, Hinze and Gordon were happy enough to take the colt to give him the opportunity.

Developing an association with breeder Anne O’Donoghue from Victoria through the mare Nevaeh that Hinze raced, the chance to take on the unnamed colt out of Havilah Mistress beckoned.

“Anne and Steve had him and they asked did we want to take him on, but it certainly was not a yes straight away,” she recalls.

“They asked again and again but basically gave him to us, and we took him more so that he could have a chance.

“Rick broke him in and we really liked him early on as he had speed, but he did not know how to control it.

“I took him to Calvert for a while and that seemed to calm him down, but Rick got him tractable and now he has really started to improve”.

Gaining plenty of admirers even before his first victory, he is sure to become a crowd favourite following his latest victory and while not spoken about initially, the striking stallion might yet have a career beyond racing in the breeding barn.

Taking each day as it presents, Hinze remains philosophical about Major Paint.

“Whatever happens, happens,” she said.

THE BAD

After sitting at the top of the table for the past 10 seasons in a streak that also saw him claim the national title on seven occasions, Grant Dixon looks set to relinquish the Queensland Trainers Premiership for the first time since taking over from his late father Bill.

Stepping up as “the general of the black and white army” at the start of the 2011-12 season, Dixon has won every state title since, however with 128 wins in the current season, a changing of the guard looks imminent.

This term will also be the first time that Dixon has not reached 200 winners in a season, having surpassed that number every year since 2011.

The peak of the Dixon dominated decade came in the 2018-19 season when the stable produced a staggering 340 winners – almost three times as many as the second placed Butler stable that had 118 wins that campaign.

While not producing the quantity of wins this season, it has still been full of quality, headlined by Horse of the Year in-waiting, Leap To Fame with his three Derbies.

Dixon is also homing in on another personal milestone, just 17 wins shy of 3,000 training wins.

Currently gripping to a nine win lead in the 2022 Queensland Trainers Premiership, Jack Butler has turned out 144 winners for the term, with second place currently held by Chantal Turpin on 135 victories, who holds a seven win buffer over Dixon.

It has been the same trifecta in the past three seasons, with Butler claiming a second place finish in the 2018-19 season with Turpin in third, improving that to be runner-up to Dixon in the past two seasons, with Butler finishing third.

With just on one month of the current season left to run, it looks set to come down to the wire, Butler holding the advantage out in front as the field swings into the home stretch.

THE WILDCARD

Queensland is being represented by just one horse in the 2022 Inter Dominion with Majestic Harry (Majestic Son) heading south to tackle the Trotters series.

It is the sister act of Stephanie and Brittany Graham flying the flag for the Sunshine State and the girls, along with Harry, performed strongly on the opening night of the series at Ballarat.

Drawn gate five in the opening heat, Brittany sent the five-year-old forward in the early stages and found enough space to drop in behind the early leader Ofortuna.

With Nephew Of Sonoko on a forward move, Ofortuna opted for cover, which had Majestic Harry snookered three back along the inside.

With no real moves until the final 500 metres, Ofortuna angled to the outside as the field swung for home, allowing Majestic Harry to utilise the passing lane.

In a tight finish, Harry was able to grab vital points out of the first round with a third place finish, heading to Tuesday’s Shepparton heat in a good position.

For Brittany it was her first drive in an Inter Dominion heat, however she did not have long on the night to soak it in, quickly returning to her Sky Channel commitments behind the microphone.

For Stephanie, it was her first Inter Dominion heat as a trainer, having taken over the preparation of Majestic Harry for the Inter Dominion Series.

Harry has drawn gate four for the second round of heats at Shepparton on Tuesday night over the 1690 metre journey with the race scheduled for 8 22pm AEST.

THE MILESTONE

Nathan Dawson reached 200 driving wins for the season at Albion Park on Tuesday week when guiding Speed Dating (All Speed Hanover) to a strong victory for trainer Shawn Grimsey.

In hot form since returning from a New South Wales campaign, the mare claimed her third successive win – all with Dawson in the driver’s seat- which included successive victories at Group 2 level in the Peak of the Creek Final and the Forever Gold mare’s event.

It is the third time that Dawson has reached 200 in a 12 month season, the first coming in the 2017-18 campaign, with his 238 last season a career high.

He is also second to Pete McMullen in the Queensland drivers premiership.

Nationally, Dawson became the fifth driver to reach 200 for the season.

Dawson was the stand out driver of the early Group features in the summer carnival, snaring four Group status events.

With two wins at Group 2 level aboard Speed Dating, the talented reinsman also secured the Group 2 AQWA Trotters Sprint aboard Majestic Harry, earning the Inter Dominion Golden Ticket with the victory.

His other Group success came at Group 3 level in the Sunshine Stars Yearling Sale three-year-old Fillies Classic with an all the way victory aboard Uptown Beachgirl.

With 28 meetings left in the current season, the chance of eclipsing his career best might be within reach, however reeling in the 30 win margin that McMullen currently leads the State title by, might just prove to be a bridge too far.

THIS WEEK

There will be six meetings in Queensland again, the week starting on Tuesday at Albion Park and finishing on Sunday at Marburg.

Racing from The Creek will see a nine race card on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a Friday afternoon meeting and then the Saturday night metropolitan fixture.

Redcliffe have meetings on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, with the track staff having a busy start to the week after losing Sunday nights meeting after a powerful storm hit the Peninsula prior to the first race.

Marburg rounds out the six meeting week with another Sunday afternoon fixture which will be the club’s penultimate meeting for the season.

Meanwhile, interstate it will be Majestic Harry and the Graham sisters flying the flag for Queensland as Majestic Harry competes in round two and three of the Inter Dominion at Shepparton and then Melton.