Young guns are flying high

Two of Victoria’s most talented junior concession harness racing drivers in Michelle Phillips and Jordan Leedham have taken to the sky and delivered the goods

Phillips flew from Melbourne to Adelaide to compete at the Strathalbyn Cup meeting at the weekend, while Leedham packed his bags and caught a plane back to Tasmania where he lived until he was 11 years old.

While the main objective for 19-year-old Leedham was visiting extended family he hadn’t seen for several years, the youngster certainly made his presence felt at Friday night’s Devonport meeting.

Leedham has more than 80 wins to his credit (11 this season), but it was the very first time he’d ever visited the venue. He obviously liked what he saw, though, with two wins from as many drives.

Leedham, from Melton South, won the opening event for trainer Bianca Heenan with Hyde Park (Blissful Hall-Shamrock Park (JR Mint) and later guided Heza Rummage (Sands A Flyin-Delving Atom (Sokys Atom) to victory for Tassie powerhouse Ben Yole.

Leedham also had five drives at Hobart’s twilight meeting on Sunday with a second and third placing being his best results.

Phillips was up with the sparrows on Sunday morning to fulfill her driving engagements at Strathalbyn and tick another track off her “winning” list.

“The flight from Tullamarine airport was about 9am I think but the alarm went off about 5 or 5.30am because I had a bit to do at the (John ‘Bulldog’ Nicholson) stables where I work,” she said.

“Strathalbyn was a track I’d never been to before and thankfully a friend in Adelaide Mal Bagnato offered to pick me up and drive me out – he ended up staying at the track for the day, and I can’t thank him enough.”

The in-form 24-year-old has had 14 wins for the season (181 in her career) and was booked for four drives for Ryan Hryhorec and picked up another for Steven Fennell.

Phillips said members in the Five540 Syndicate had asked trainer Ryan Hryhorec to check if she would be available.

“I’ve developed a pretty good strike rate for them in Mildura, so it was a nice gesture for them to ask me,” she said.

“I did take a bit to decide with all the logistics involved and then with Mal’s helping hand, I thought yeah why not, let’s do it!”.

Phillips started with a second and a third placing, before scoring nicely on five-year-old mare Easy Rolling (Roll With Joe-Deal To The Left (American Ideal) for Hryhorec and his owners the Wells Family Group.

She then ran seventh in the Pacing Cup with Somewhere Secret (beaten 7m) behind the winner Maharajah (Wayne Hill). Her last drive on the program was Pickle It, who tried to lead all the way, before running fourth.

“The track is about 800m and one of Ryan’s trotters in C K Spur, which I drove, wasn’t comfortable. We ran third in the Trotters Cup behind his stablemates, but he was probably the run of the race in my opinion,” Phillips said.

Good friends Phillips and Leedham will be back to earth on Friday, though. They are among a small group of drivers who invariably make the long-haul trip to Mildura in Victoria’s far northwest. They will be back sharing a car again this Friday, with Leedham no doubt having the bragging rights this time!

Despite covering tens of thousands of kilometres a year for drives, Phillips said it was the first time she had caught a plane to compete at a meeting.

“The McCarthy brothers Andy and Todd and the others over in the States do it all the time.I’m thinking it wouldn’t be a bad lifestyle!” she laughed.

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink