Tayla is having the time of her life

Harness racing seasons don’t come much better than 2022 for Victorian young driver Tayla French but later this week she’ll have the opportunity to add one – or maybe two – more highlights to her year.

French will not only have her first Inter Dominion final drive on Saturday night (Dec, 10) but will also compete in the deciding round of the 2022 Australasian Young Driver’s title, getting underway tonight at Melton.

“It’s going to be a busy week – we’ve been focused on the Inter Dominion and other things, and the young drivers’ championship sort of went under the radar a bit.  But it’s an honor and I’m looking forward to it,” French said.

“I haven’t competed at an invitational before. I was asked to do a female drivers’ event in Queensland earlier this year, but that got washed out, so it was nice to be offered the chance in the Young Drivers’ Championship,” she said.

“As for the Inter Dominion, that hasn’t sunk in yet really!  It’s pretty jaw-dropping to have qualified for an ID final – it’ll be a great night.”

It’s not only been a big year on the track for the Bendigo-based French, but off-track, she and her partner, trainer Alex Ashwood, have been putting in the long hours in developing their own impressive training complex.

French clearly has a bright future in front of her.  She still qualifies for a three-point driving concession but, at just 25, is enjoying a stellar fifth season in the sulky.  Her 72 wins for the season surpasses her previous best of 69 in 2021.

She recorded her 200^th career victory a few weeks ago (she now sits on 210 wins) and has added a further three black-type races to her resume this year – the Maryborough and Swan Hill Trotters Cups and the VicBred Platinum Trotting Mares Sprint Championship.

All five of her group victories have been on square gaiters.  She has an undisputed affinity with the trotters, most notably the up-and-comer Parisian Artiste (Love You) who was trained to Group 1 success in last season’s 3yo Trotters VicBred Final by her partner Alex Ashwood, and is the couple’s qualifier for the ID22 final.

Their stable star has come back bigger, stronger and more mature this preparation, picking up two listed Trotters Cup events during August and September, before being targetted at the Inter Dominion.

“He’s been going super, but he has been flying under the radar a bit during the ID series,” French said.

“He’s been working off the map, but has been running into some not great luck during the heats, so we thought it was borderline as to whether he would make it through to the final.

“But he has, and I’m just waiting for the reality to kick in!  We’re very happy with him going in – hopefully we get a bit of luck to help us along.”

French joins six drivers from across Australia and three from New Zealand in the Haras des Trotteurs Australasian Young Drivers Championships leading up to and culminating on Inter Dominion grand final night at Melton on Saturday.

NZ South Island’s Sarah O’Reilly is the reigning champion from the last event contested in 2019. She is joined by fellow Kiwis Sam Thornley (South Island) and Crystal Hackett (North Island), and Australians Tayla French (Victoria), Emily Suvaljko (Western Australia), Brendan Barnes (Queensland), Jordan Chibnall (Tasmania), Cam Hart (New South Wales) and Samantha Pascoe (South Australia). Hart also contested the 2019 series.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink