Tree crushes car – and lucky break begins

Central Victorian harness racing couple Clive and Rachel Henderson probably thought they’d used up all their luck when a falling tree crushed their car.

But, to the contrary, the couple just kept their lucky run rolling a short time later, with their handy pacer Rocking Bugatti (Pet Rock) recording Clive’s first training win in 35 years – then making it back-to-back wins for them next start.

“It was a narrow escape, but I guess you could say we are having a pretty charmed run,” Henderson said.

“The incident with the tree happened four or five weeks ago on our way home to Sutton Grange from the Bendigo trots.  Anyone who knows that area knows that I was on ‘roo watch’ and that was what saved us.  If I’d been going just that bit faster, we wouldn’t be here now, I don’t think,” he said.

“It had been a super wet month and without warning a 15-metre-high gum tree, 3 tonnes worth, landed right on top of the car. It just came out of the darkness and crashed completely across the road – we virtually ploughed right through it. Since that night there have been four fatalities in Victoria from falling trees so we were pretty lucky.

“Our ute is a twin cab, and that was fortunate because there’s a lot of strength in a twin cab roof and that’s what saved our bacon.

“It didn’t seem it at the time, but it was lucky we walked away – and we’ve had two wins since, so in hindsight it was probably the start of a lucky run!”

Henderson is the vice president and treasurer of the Bendigo Harness Racing Club, and has been involved in the sport since he was a teenager.

“I learnt early on from the best – as a teenager I would go to Gordon Rothacker’s place at weekends and muck out boxes, then, as happens, eventually got to jog a slow one and went from there,” Henderson said.

“My wife Raz (Rachel) and I used to be hobby trainers when we were kids, and then we had three girls and I had a trucking business, and we didn’t really have time to do the horses.  So we decided to take a break from training, and the break went for 35 years!”

While training took a back seat, the couple never lost interest.

“We were watching the Miracle Mile six years ago with that battle between Lenny The Shark and Have Faith In Me all the way up the straight.  The spark kicked in again and we said lets buy a horse,” Henderson said.

“Since then, we’ve always had a horse or two with other trainers including Kerryn Manning, Chris Svanosio, Jack Butler in Brisbane, and our neighbors Ross and Leigh Graham,” he said.

“It’s good to share the joy and you meet lots of nice people along the way.  We’ve had about 50 winners over the past six years as owners and it’s been a lot of fun.  But when it was decided it was time to move on Rocking Bugatti, we thought we would have a go ourselves at training again.”

Rocking Bugatti has had 15 starts for Henderson, and has failed to weigh in only once, recording five placings in addition to his recent two wins.

“We’ve had a huge amount of help along the way and a lot of it is from the really clever young people in the sport, based at the Bendigo training centre -Alex Ashwood, Tayla French and Michelle Phillips have been great,” he said.

“It’s been a long time for us and when we came back in, I virtually knew how to feed a horse and work them, but these kids are doing it in the modern way and they are clever in knowing when a rein burr or a different bit might help solve a problem and you learn a lot from them.

“Michelle has driven ‘Buggsy’ for five of his eight wins and knows him really well and Tayla won a few races on Azza (Big Jim) for us last year, so we’ve got a great friendship with those young guys.”