Lauren Tritton lands a big 4

From 15,000 kilometres away, it’s easy to underestimate the significance of former expat Australian harness racing star Lauren Tritton’s four winners at Tioga Downs, New York, on Sunday.

Tritton has, after all, driven four wins on a card 21 times in Australia and has bagged five race wins on nine occasions.

At Tioga Downs Lauren combined with husband and trainer Shane to win with Springsteen ($3.30) and Let’snotforget ($14.80), as well as Our Majordan A ($3.10) for Paul Blumenfeld and Globaldomination N ($2.50), trained by Shane’s father Peter.

And from just 38 drives since relocating to the United States in 2020, Lauren has now recorded 12 wins and 13 placings – not a bad strike rate in anyone’s language.

No one seems clear if it’s the first time a female driver has driven four wins on a card in the US – but considering the ratio of female drivers competing there, the achievement is certainly notable!

“That side of it has definitely been an eye opener for us,” Shane Tritton said.

“We’re so used to women competing at home and you would have to say women make up at least 50 percent of the best going around in Australia – it’s a completely different world here,” he said.

“You could watch 500 races in this country and perhaps watch a female drive five times  – there are a lot in the ‘amateurs’ but you could count professionals on one hand I think.

“What Lauren’s doing is what she expects to do, and what she’s done for a long time.  But here it is really something pretty special, and not something they see much certainly in this current era.

“I’m very proud she’s out there showing the girls can do it as good as the boys, and we’ve had a lot of people reach out to us, especially women in the sport who are pretty inspired to see it.”

Lauren Tritton has a highlight reel as long as your arm as a driver back home in Australia. She’s driven over 850 winners, was the youngest woman in Australian history to drive 500 winners, the first female to win the NSW Metropolitan Driver’s Premiership and a winner of over 100 group-listed races.

She made a low-key return to the track once the couple relocated to Pine Bush, New Jersey, having only eight drives before becoming pregnant with their second child and stepping down from driving duties.

She resumed driving in February and has been gradually building her driving engagements.

Shane said although Lauren was generally the only female competing at the meetings they attended, she’d found the drivers courteous and respectful.

“I think it’s helped that she’s competed on an even playing field with some of them when they’ve been out to Australia, drivers like Yannick (Gingrich) and Tim (Tetrick).  And of course, she’s known and driven against Todd and Andy McCarthy and Dexter Dunn for years, so they know what she is capable of,” he said.

Tritton said he was pleased to see his wife returning to her exceptional best.

“The more she drives the more she wins, that’s always been the way she is.  But at Tioga Downs it was really the first time I have seen her in the headspace I am used to seeing her in,” he said.

“Up until now, she would go to a meeting and drive a horse or two, and it was good to see her out there.  But now she’s starting to get her old confidence back and at Tioga she was back driving aggressively and showing what she can do. I loved seeing it.

“She is being offered other opportunities now and that’s a compliment to her that people can see she has a talent and want to use her.

“We’ve got a lot on, though, at the moment, we have 20 horses in work, we do a lot of miles, and we have two little kids at home, so Lauren’s working very hard – at this point she isn’t looking to travel to different meetings to pursue the driving side of it too much.

“But she’s still young and has a lot of driving years left in her, so we’ll see what she wants to do. We’d just love her to be part of helping to show girls here that they don’t have to settle for just being grooms or trainers, or for the amateurs – that if they work hard and have the ability, they can step up.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink