Two new juniors emerging in WA

Abbey Vidovich and Kylah Madden are the most recent ‘graduates’ of the Racing WA Junior Driver Program and Racing WA’s Driving Mentor Aldo Cortopassi is expecting big things from both young harness racing reinswomen.

“They have both come thought their trials well and show real maturity in the way they drive.

“I feel both will hit the ground running and be a valuable asset to the industry moving forward.” Aldo Cortopassi said.

Abbey Vidovich was first to make her debut, with the 18-year-old hitting the track on Monday, October 21 at Pinjarra with Shes A Lucky Penny in race seven on the card, the Lightning Lap, finishing in sixth place just 8.9m off the winner in successful start to her driving career.

With the usual nerves and jitters hitting her slightly before making her way out on to the track, Vidovich had an entourage of onlookers there for support and the moment she had been working so hard towards for the last six months was finally here and Vidovich loved every minute of it.

Vidovich, who did not come a horse background started in the harness racing industry when family friend Dean Miller offered her a job scrubbing water buckets and doing yards, with her intrigue finally leading her to sit behind her first horse at his Coolup based property.

“When I first jogged one at Deans, I found it quite interesting, then Kim (Prentice) was going away and needed a hand, so I went there for about six months and learnt more about the racing side and found it fascinating.”

Vidovich’s career was put on pause momentarily when a young horse crushed her hand at the track resulting in a broken wrist, requiring her take a step back for six weeks, but as soon as she was given the green light, she was back at trials, an invaluable learning experience for the young driver.

“The trial process was definitely helpful, especially not coming from a horsey background.

“It was good knowing everyone will help you out there.”

Kylah Madden looks to make her debut this weekend with her first race drive on Friday night at Bunbury on board Altair Star, after being signed off as ready to race by driving mentor, Aldo Cortopassi, in recent weeks.

Madden make her start to trials earlier in the year after working in the industry for quite some time under the very experienced hands of Colin Brown.

“Browny has been awesome to learn from, as well as other trainers I’ve driven for.

“I’m pretty keen to get my first drive done. Aldo (Cortopassi) has been super supportive and helped out heaps along the way which is really good.”

Madden comes from an equestrian background, previously showing her retired standardbreds at numerous events before ultimately making her way into the racing scene and getting the bug.

Altair Star starts from barrier 8 in race 3 at 6.56pm WST.

For complete race entries, click here

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA