Tony shooting for the stars

Long-time harness racing trainer Tony Peacock, who produced talented mare Illawong Stardust to win at Melton on Saturday night, has always had a love for square gaiters.

“I’ve actually had quite a few of them over the years and been lucky enough to win some great feature races,” Peacock, of Moama, said.

“I spent a lot of time with the late George Gath who was a legend with trotters, so it was nice that one of his sons in Brian got the victory for us.”

Four-year-old mare Illawong Stardust (Muscle Hill-Lunar Landing (Sundon) was super impressive in taking out the $20,000 Melton City Council Trot over Royal Charlotte, with Imsettogo, a neck away in third spot.

In a race winning move, 77-year-old Gath was at his wily best when he made an early three wide run and then “lifted” Illawong Stardust to a short half head victory.

“Brian’s driving as well as ever, and his judgement is still great. He’s amazing – after getting home late from Melton, he was up early the next morning to drive at the local trials,” Peacock said.

“Jim O’Sullivan (a legend of the sport in Victoria) told me he gave Brian a mark of 12 out of 10 for his winning drive!

“The plan was to go early and keep in front of our main danger Imsettogo and I thought our horse went super.  We’ll be back at Melton next Saturday for the group two Matriarch Trot.”

Illawong Stardust come in for late support on Saturday night, obviously on the strength of an eye-catching second at Shepparton 11 days earlier, her first run this campaign. In that race, the mare began slowly from the 20m handicap and took time to pick up the bit.  At one stage she was more than 60m off the leaders but dug deep over the latter stages to go down by a metre.

The Peacock-Gath team has had a long and successful association over the years capturing some thrilling wins in feature events with horses of the calibre of Reba Rajah, Toe Taper, Bad Boy Truscott and others. Over the years, Peacock has also tasted success with many square gaiters including Bad Boy Truscott, Kiwi Diamond and an “old warrior” in Irish Whisper.

“Bad Boy Truscott was brilliant, but he was also very wayward,” Peacock said.

“We won country cups, the Gramel feature event in South Australia and some other top events.

“I’m getting keen again on the trotters because there’s now so many races programmed for them and with some good stakemoney.”

Illawong Stardust is raced by Kaye Hartnett, whose late husband Martin was a successful owner-breeder and a strong supporter of harness racing.

“I’d known Martin for over 40 years. I met him after I bought a property at Invergordon and he was the local doctor at Numurkah. He actually delivered my daughter Crystal,” Peacock said.

“I sold him his first horse, then later he got El Trafford off me and at the time, she was the fastest three-year-old filly in Australasia,” he said.

“Kaye was very happy with the win of Illawong Stardust. She watched it at home on Sky Channel and next Saturday we hope to get permission for the horse to race in Martin’s colors of black with yellow diamonds.”

Peacock, a renowned horse breaker, has a lot of youngsters in work at present and will again stand former NZ classy pacer Auckland Reactor at stud this coming season.

“We are also training two others for Kaye in Illawong Manooka and Illawong Barmah. We have high hopes with ‘Barmah’ who is a quality horse.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink