Young gun “herbs” past 150 winners

Super talented freelance reinsman James Herbertson continues to rack up new harness racing milestones as he surges towards a third Victorian State Driving Premiership.

Herbertson, who turned 24 in March, was classified as a concession reinsman under Victorian rules until his birthday – albeit a concession reinsman with 1,500 plus wins under his belt!

Based at Lexton, near Ballarat, “Herbie” passed 150 wins for 2024 (he is currently sitting on 159 wins for the season) in the past week, recording 16 wins in seven days of racing, including a metropolitan treble at Melton on Saturday night (Aug 3).

Herbertson has driven more than 200 winners in each of the past three seasons and recorded his career best of 252 in 2023, going back-to-back with State driving titles.

Without the luxury of being the number one driver for any of the State’s major stables, Herbertson instead relies on the loyalty of second and third-tier trainers.

“It’s really a testament to opportunity and a bit of hard work along the way, but mainly opportunity. If you don’t have the horsepower, you can’t win the races,” Herbertson told Paul Campbell of Campbells Comments.

“The driving force for me is people with only small teams and people who continually back me.  If I have to get off their horse one week, they put me on again the next,” he said.

“I’m very career focused and it’s a business at the end of the day, so you have to put yourself on the best horses, but I am very lucky I have got a lot of loyal people behind me.”

Herbertson’s Melton opportunities typify his success – when occasion presents, he makes the most of it!

Two of his Saturday night victories were for trainer Jess Tubbs, whose husband Greg Sugars was in Tasmania with the couple’s well-performed three-year-old Fighter Command (Always B Miki).  (Fighter Command successfully contested the $80K Beautide 3yo and 4yo feature, with the comfortable win his eighth victory in just 11 starts.) Herbertson, meanwhile, recorded victories for Tubbs on three-year-old filly Tilly Jane (Betting Line) and Dichotomy (Aldebaran Eagle).

Herbertson has another big week ahead, with a road trip to Shepparton tonight, a double-header tomorrow with Horsham (day) and Bendigo (night), a hometown (Ballarat) fixture on Thursday night, Melton on Friday and Saturday nights and Cranbourne on Sunday.

It’s around 2000 kilometres in all – but the hard-working Herbertson is philosophical.

“I’ve had an incredible couple of months, just the way the horses are racing and everything’s going pretty good,” he said.

“If everything keeps going that way, we might be a bit of a chance to get to 250 again and if we can get past that, that would be great, but we will just keep ticking along.

“I’ve put a lot to the side to continue doing what I am doing and try to get the results – I might look back one day down the track and think I did the wrong thing, but I don’t think so.”

Herbertson drove pony trots for two years and, at his first official race drive, landed a winner for his father Ashleigh in Tearitup at Terang in 2016.

Hoofnote: Leading South Australian reinsman Wayne Hill had a day out at Gawler on Sunday (August 4) with a bag of six winners – the third time he’s achieved the feat.

The first time was way back on December 28, 2015, at Victor Harbour, with the next one just two months ago at Port Pirie on June 9.

Hill drove three winners in his Gawler haul for dual-code trainer Aaron Bain in Shezamajorstar, Princess Chiola and Wings On The Line. He combined with Luke O’Neill to land Muscle Miss and Majestic Courtney, with the remaining one in Mercury Rising for Jason Booth.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink