That’s 1500 wins for Bernie

On Saturday night at Albion Park the master Georges Plains harness racing driver notched up the 1,500^th win of his driving career. Not surprisingly, he had no idea he’d hit the milestone until he saw it on social media.

“I saw that on facebook, I didn’t know about it until I saw it. It was quite pleasing, obviously I don’t keep count of them but it’s nice it’s happened,” Hewitt said.

“I’ve just always had a great passion for it, so I’ve just been following it along all these years. I always wanted to do it and it has been great, it’s worked out quite well.”

Though reaching that milestone may have come as a surprise to Hewitt, it is no surprise he became involved in the harness racing industry.

He grew up helping his father Tom work his team of horses on a family property near Crookwell – something his brothers Mark and David and sister Jenna did as well.

“There was no mini trotting back then so it was all just start on the big horses, it went from there. I was probably eight or 10 when I first started, I can’t remember for sure, I just poked around,” he said.

Hewitt went on to become a trainer-driver in his own right and since making the move to George Plains has enjoyed highlights such as his first Group 1 win in 2017 aboard Royal Story and driving College Chapel to victory in the 2018 Gold Crown Final.

Hewitt has also twice won the race honouring his parents – the Tom and Angela Hewitt Memorial – which is staged each year in Goulburn. Those wins came with Royal Story (2018) and Lets Katchmeifucan (2019).

There have been hard times and setbacks as well, but Hewitt has always retained his passion for working with horses.

“You have your runs where things don’t work out and don’t go right, you’re always looking for that elusive good one or champion to win races, but the passion has always been there,” Hewitt said.

“I’ve had a few broken ankles and so forth, broken ribs, but it’s more being kicked – I got a broken knee from being kicked – but I’ve had no major injuries so I’ve been lucky in the race fall department.”

It was a a five-year-old gelding called Make Mine Memphis that Hewitt drove to win number 1,500. He guided the $5.50 chance three wide early before settling in the death seat.

Into the final bend Hewitt asked Make Mine Memphis to give and he did, hitting the front and going on to win by 2.9m in a career best 1:53.6 mile rate.

“He went real good. He had a bit of a foot abscesses going back three weeks ago and had a bit of a freshen in that time,” Hewitt said.

“He had one run coming back Saturday a week ago and came second and put the writing on the wall and then he went super Saturday night again.

“It was the first metro win for that horse, so he’ll go into a harder race this coming Saturday night.”

Hewitt said he will return to his Georges Plains stable within the next fortnight.