Rugby rules at bush cup meet

Hawthorn AFL great Robert Di Pierdomenico was the special guest at Ouyen Harness Racing Club’s cup day on Sunday – but the stature of the great man was possibly lost on the victorious trainer, Charlton-based Shane Sanderson.

Former teenage star and first grader rugby-player Sanderson and his reinsman son Ryan made it back-to-back wins in the Greggs Electrical Cup when bay gelding Equity Stride (Art Major-Heavenly Cullen (Christian Cullen) narrowly held off a late challenge by Stratofortress for a half-head victory.

Wind the clock back 12 months ago and the Sanderson’s were victorious in the 2021 event with Blaster Ranger, who also had to dig deep to defeat Egodan – again by the barest margin!

Growing up in the Brisbane harness racing stronghold of Redcliffe, Shane had plenty of exposure to horses and racing, but it wasn’t his first sporting passion.

As a youngster he was regarded as an exceptional Rugby League talent, playing for Redcliffe Dolphins and being selected in both Queensland and Australian Under 19 representative teams as an 18-year-old.

“That was pretty exciting. At one time there I was playing first grade as well as the Colts. It was good money back then,” he said.

“I played in one grand final and we lost – then I did my ankle really bad and missed the next one, which we won!”

Sanderson wasn’t from a harness racing family, but admits he always had more than a passing interest in the sport.

“Redcliffe has streets full of trainers who live near the track and as a 15-year-old I used to go around to the stables of Greg Franklin and Neale Scott and it just really grew from there,” he said.

Sanderson eventually took out a harness racing trainer’s licence in the mid-1990s, and he and his wife Naomi moved to the Lockyer Valley region, buying a property at Gatton.

In early 2016 they left Queensland to be based at the state-of-the-art training complex at Menangle where they returned good results.

In October 2020 a twist of fate, through a shocking racefall at Charlton was the catalyst for the family to move to central Victoria.

As a talented junior driver Ryan had been trying his luck down south and, during a race at Charlton was dislodged from the sulky and airlifted to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He suffered internal bleeding but escaped any broken bones.

The Charlton club president Joe Thompson was in regular contact with the family after Ryan’s fall

“We were back in Victoria for some reason and after being in close contact with Joe, I went out to see him and say thanks for everything he’d done-he showed us around and that’s where it started,” Shane said.

Shane and his wife Naomi, along with Ryan and younger sister Abby (also a licensed driver) shifted to the Charlton Training Centre a little over 12 months ago. The centre originally become base for former SA trainer Greg Norman, and then Michael Gadsden and Denbeigh Wade and the latest arrivals are Ashleigh and Tamara Markham from WA. All the resident trainers have been attracted by the growing facilities, and its centrality to other tracks.

“It was a big relief to see Ryan get him home at Ouyen on Sunday because we’ve been doing it a bit tough. Our stable hit the skids for winners there a while ago,” he said.

“But in saying that we haven’t been racing big numbers because I’ve been breaking-in plenty of youngsters. They’ll start filtering through in the next few months,” he said.

“I love doing the young ones because you’re always a chance of getting another top horse.”

Eighteen-year-old Ryan, who recently notched up his 100th career win as a driver, pinged Equity Stride to the head of affairs and looked comfortable turning for home in the Ouyen Cup.

“Ryan is going along really well at the moment. He won the Birchip Cup and then took out a heat and final series at Charlton. With a bit of luck, I’ll have some contributing a bit better soon!” Shane said.

Equity Stride is raced by Australia’s biggest owner in Emilio Rosati and his wife Mary, based in Sydney. The pacer has now won eight races from just 25 starts and was transferred to the Charlton stables of Sanderson last August.

“I spoke with Emilio after the race, and he was pretty happy. Equity Stride was one of the ones who has still been ticking along nicely during our somewhat lean period,” Shane said.

“We probably won’t tackle the upcoming Mildura Pacing Cup with him. He’s not the easiest horse to drive and all the better ones are sure to be heading up north.

“There’s 20 in our stables at the moment, which is more than we usually do. We get a helping hand from Brian Kelly, who is a former harness racing guy, while we have another helper Sophie who’s about each morning.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink