Queensland harness racing wrap

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

THE GOOD

A valiant fifth-placed effort in the Trotters Inter Dominion Final to Majestic Harry (Majestic Son) capped what was a wonderful series for Brittany and Stephanie Graham.

Qualifying for the Final after three top efforts throughout the heats, once again Brittany was able to drive Harry to optimise his finishing position.

Majestic Harry will now head home to Queensland as he can now target the 2023 ID series on home soil.

The baton has now been passed to Brisbane as the next Inter Dominion host city, with the dates announced for harness racing’s pinnacle event.

First round heats will be held on Friday December 1 with the subsequent qualifiers on Tuesday December 5 and Saturday December 9.

The $500,000 pacers Grand Final and $250,000 trotters Grand Final will be held on Saturday December 16.

Queensland last hosted an Inters series in 2009, with Gold Coast the host track after Albion Park was unavailable.

The year of 2001 was the last time that Albion Park hosted an Inter Dominion, the winners on that occasion were Yulestar in the pacers for trainer Lorraine Nolan and driver Tony Shaw, with Take A Moment for Tim Butt and driver Anthony Butt.

Back in 2001, Queensland did not have a representative in the pacers or trotters Final.

However, when the 2023 series rolls around, the locals will have the arsenal ready to repel the raid.

THE BAD

Brendan Barnes represented Queensland admirably throughout the past week in the Australasian Young Drivers Championship, yet unfortunately finished just outside the top three.

Winless throughout the series, Barnes was consistent throughout in finishing fourth, ahead of three other drivers who had winners across the nine races of the championships.

Driving Bide Our Time for trainer David Moran in the final race of the series on Inter Dominion Final night, Barnes looked to be in a perfect one out trailing position with a lap to travel.

What seemed a perfect spot soon turned messy as the moves started to come and with 400 metres to travel, Bide Our Time was last in a bunching field, surrounded by a wall of horses.

Angling across to be five-wide as the field swung into the home stretch, Bide Our Time started to let down and accelerate, hitting he front with 100 metres left to travel.

Seemingly with the race in the bag, Bide Our Time peaked on the run and Major Watson darted through along the passing lane to pinch the prize by a half-neck margin, denying Barnes the victory.

The win of Major Watson was the second in the series for Victorian Tayla French and catapulted her into first place in the series, posting a three-point margin over New Zealand’s (South Island) Sam Thornley, with West Australian Emily Suvaljko who drove two winners in the series holding onto third.

Barnes was four points away in fourth place, one point clear of fifth placed Sarah O’Reilly from the South Island of New Zealand.

Despite going winless throughout the nine-race championship, Barnes was able to claim some travelling money after a successful pick-up drive on Thursday night at Bendigo, on a night dedicated to honouring the deeds of the Lang family.

After finishing fifth in both races of the Young Drivers Championship earlier in the evening, Barnes came with a well-timed finish aboard the Donna Castles trained square gaiter Berriesandcherries to claim the Lang Family Dynasty Trot.

THE MILESTONE

The record-breaking season for Trent Dawson continued in the past week when Sarasun (Sunshine Beach) was successful at Albion Park on Tuesday afternoon.

Already this season, Dawson has added a further two Group 1 victories to his name as a trainer and driver, scored his first victories at Group 3 level with Blacksadance in the Be Good Johnny Sprint and Future Assured, which he also trains, in the Sunshine Stars 3YO Classic, owned his first Group 1 winner, passed 200 training winners and also passed 600 driving winners.

The win of Sarasun was a double milestone victory, bringing up 50 driving wins for the season – the third time he has reached the half-century – and 42 training winners.

By claiming the 42nd win for the term, it set a new season high win tally for Dawson, eclipsing his benchmark season of 2021 where he led home 41 winners.

Sarasun, owned by Kevin and Kay Seymour under the Solid Earth banner, put in the run of an imminent winner when resuming from a spell on November 29.

Finishing third on that occasion, she was under three metres from the dead-heating winners Shoobee Right and Skylar Bree.

Sarasun started at $4.20 on Tuesday, with the Jack Butler trained Nineteenthirtyfour all the rage with punters, starting as the $1.70 favourite.

Showing the early speed to find the front with Sarasun, Dawson opted to take the trail on the race favourite with 1000 metres to travel.

Biding his time as Khulan Kid and Nineteenthirtyfour were staring each other down as the field swung for home, Dawson angled Saraun into the passing lane.

Taking some time to pick up, the half-sister to Dawson’s Group 1 Triad winner Talent To Spare, eventually darted through, took the lead, and claimed victory by 1.8 metres and a $14,000 QBRED first win bonus.

While time may run out for the further eight winners required to reach his previous best of 57 set in the 2010-11 season, he only requires two more driving wins to pass the 51 recorded last season which is currently his second-best season in the sulky.

With 19 days left in the season, can Dawson add one more milestone to his brilliant season?

THE WILDCARD

After looking a lock for the trophy after his win on November 9, the Redcliffe Horse of the Year title is a little tighter following the past fortnight and might just come down to the wire.

Johnrod claimed his tenth victory for the season at Redcliffe on that date and a second placing the following week took his tally to 50 points in the title race.

That was a 13-point buffer over Chasin Dreamz, however, the Matt Crone-trained mare has clawed back the deficit to now sit six points adrift of the leader.

Sent to the front on Thursday from barrier five, the mare was perfectly rated with even splits in front by Angus Garrard, pulling clear to score by a margin of nine metres.

That win was the seventh of the season on “The Triangle” for the six-year-old mare and the second win under the care of Matt Crone after he took over from his mother Kay, as the trainer in September.

A real family-affair, Chasin Dreamz is owned by Matt’s sister Sami and has now won 14 races in her career for the Crone family, nine of those when driven by Angus Garrard.

That was the six-year-old mare’s second win on The Triangle in her past three starts, scoring victory by eight metres after overcoming the inside second line back on November 24.

The Tayla Gillespie trained-Johnrod is amid a career-high season, with his 10 wins this season stretching his overall record to 14 career victories.

Driven by Matt Elkins in nine of those victories, they include a streak of five recorded through May and June, with Nathan Dawson in the seat for the gelding’s other win.

Both Chasin Dreamz and Johnrod are nominated for this Thursday at Redcliffe and with just a further four meetings to be held for the season after this week, all points will be vital.

THIS WEEK

Six meetings again for the week in Queensland, starting with Albion Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The Creek will be the venue for three meetings in the week ahead and with the 2022 Inter Dominion Final at Melton now behind us, we can now refer to The Creek as the home of the next Inters series.

Tuesday afternoon is an eight-race card with Friday an afternoon fixture before a big night of racing on Saturday.

The Saturday night card from headquarters will see a number of strong races, including the Members Cup for the NR60-75 assessed pacers, the Christmas Cup FFA and the Garrards Trotters Christmas Cup.

Redcliffe will host eight races on the regular Wednesday night slot and another full card on Thursday afternoon.

Wednesday night will see the start of the 2022 BOTRA Queensland Young Drivers Championship, with six heats to be conducted in this year’s series.

A further two heats will be held at Albion Park on Friday before the final two heats shift to Marburg for the first time.

It will be a big day at Marburg with the Young Drivers Championship reaching a peak as the MPA also host their final meeting for the season.