Scripts from 2016 Victorian Harness Racing Media Association Hall of Fame Night, courtesy of legendary trots scribe MAX AGNEW
CARLOTTAS PRIDE – Hall of Fame inductee
Clearly the finest trotter of her day in Australia during the 1950s, Carlottas Pride was bred by Victoria’s top breeder of that era, Eric Cochran, who leased the filly to trainer George Gath where she raced in the name of his wife Gladys throughout her wonderful career of 45 victories that included 16 classics and the major races of the day.
In late December of 1955, she easily beat her own track record at the Melbourne Showgrounds, then at her next start when taken up to Sydney’s Harold Park, she set a new track record there. A month later when floated by stablehand Ron Peace to Adelaide to defend her title in that State’s major trot, the South Australian Trotting Cup, she overcame her 96 yards handicap to win, setting yet another track record for the small Wayville circuit when driven by Norm Gath, younger brother of the trainer.
Another memorable achievement for Carlottas Pride was her taking on the top pacers in a Sydney Spring Cup, easily winning this major pacing event with second place to the outstanding pacer Maestro’s Melody, a placegetter in an Inter Dominion Pacing Final.
The morning after one of the mare’s wins at Harold Park when driven by Neville Gath, elder son of George, early the next morning Neville was floating Carlottas Pride back to Melbourne and diverted across to Leeton where a cousin was to be married that day, planning to stable the mare for a few hours at the trotting track.
He was surprised to discover there was a race meeting that afternoon, and when the club realised who it was coming in the gate, they invited Neville to put on an exhibition trot with the mare. To then, Leeton had never included a trotting race at any meeting. After her trial, Neville was delighted to learn Carlottas Pride had easily beaten the track record for pacers there.
A wonderful trotter that set track records wherever she went, we welcome Carlottas Pride into our Hall Of Fame for 2016, with Neville Gath to accept this honour on behalf of connections.
BEN CORAM – Hall of Fame inductee
When Ben Coram attended a horse sale in 1933 near Dandenong, he knew little about trotting, though handling horses every day that pulled the milk carts he operated. He took an interest in an untried young pacer when it was led into the sale ring. Urged on by a mate to put in a bid and save a horse from the knackery, it was knocked down to Ben for 11 guineas, about 22 dollars.
Sending the horse to a trotting trainer, the horseman soon after declared it was useless trying to get this one to the races, so Ben decided to train it himself, enabling them both to learn about harness racing. With Ben in the sulky, its first win was at Ascot, opposite the Melbourne Showgrounds. Obviously it did not impress greatly as when it later saluted for its third victory there, it returned a record 71 pounds with the on-course tote, equal to 142 dollars.
Dan’s Son, with Ben in the sulky, went on improving until culminating its racing career by winning the 1938 Adelaide Inter Dominion on the small Wayville track.
Flushed with this success, Coram came to enjoy further victories with other horses including the smart Miraculous. After the Melbourne Showgrounds opened in November of 1947, Ben, along with his sons Bruce and Lloyd, each drove with success there.
More recently a grand-daughter of Ben, Georgie Coram, purchased a trotter at the Tabcorp Park Yearling sales, where among its wins has been one this past season at this very track.
Ben Coram – the man who saved an untried pacer from becoming dogs’ meat, and rewarded when later it became an Inter Dominion Champion – a worthy inductee into the Hall Of Fame – with Georgie Coram to accept on behalf of the Coram family.
ADAPTOR – Hall of Fame inductee
A 1963 colt by Dick Adios, Adaptor was raced by Steve Touhey of Serpentine, and trained and driven by Jack Hargreaves from Korong Vale. The colt’s training track had been created in a large wheat paddock where Jack had also trained several well-known pacers including the darling of country harness, Faye Marie.
From this background, Adaptor had 45 starts for 27 victories, a record that would surely have been improved upon had he not been such an unreliable horse away from a standing start. The strapper of the horse was the owner’s son, Brian, who played football in the Bendigo League for Golden Square, and the colours worn in Adaptor’s wins were the same as this footy team.
Though winning several classics as a youngster, the season 1969 would be this stallion’s big year. He started it off by winning the Apollo Mile at the Melbourne Showgrounds setting a new world record for a three-furlong track of 2:00.4. He then captured the Bendigo Cup from 24 yards behind after being slowly away. Then, on March 10 at Sydney’s Harold Park behind the mobile, he won the third running of the Miracle Mile in 1:59.1, beating the Kiwi Twinkle Hanover. The champion staying mare Richmond Lass finished fifth in that event.
Within three days of that victory, American interests purchased the five-year-old Adaptor for $120,000, plus a contingency of a further $75,000. This was the highest price an Aussie pacer had to then been sold to North America.
He won several races in the USA going smart times. In one of these wins he lowered his best time to 1:58.2. When retired to stud there, he was given few opportunities, but did leave a handful of winners.
Accepting the induction of Adaptor into the Hall Of Fame is the horse’s one-time strapper Brian, the son of the late Steve Touhey.
JACK McKAY – Hall of Fame inductee
With the induction of Jack McKay into the Harness Racing Hall Of Fame, it is the second time we have two brothers involved – the first being Neville and Brian Gath, and now the late Jack McKay following in the footsteps of his older brother Bill who was inducted in 2010.
Both brothers trained at the Melbourne Showgrounds at one time, where they dominated the classics for two and three-year-olds, often with Bill driving the winners trained by brother Jack. Among the major clients Jack trained for in this era were three notable breeders – the Abrahams family of Meadowbrook Stud; Jack Campbell of Loddon Valley Stud, and the man they called ‘Minyip Jack’.
Few trainers of any era have been able to match the number of classic winners Jack McKay trained, as they included such stars as the great Argent, inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2009. She later produced the outstanding colt Gyro for Jack. Other classic performers he trained as youngsters included Dale Spring, Chrome Gift, Explicit, Sheffield Globe, Pacing Gift, Alternative, Charltonian, and Receiver.
Then there were Edict, Cute Bono, Harold Dillon, Kowtow, Clan Mactavish, and Geeteevee. There are many who believe his best was either the filly Argent, or her son Gyro, while he also trained their close relatives Gyration and Sperry. Many might not remember that it was Jack who also trained Field Battery before it later sired Inter Dominion champion Minuteman.
Jack was a man who was quietly spoken – though he did on one occasion speak up knowing it would get him into a spot of trouble with certain stewards when he told them they were getting it all wrong. Speaking his mind like that cost him a little holiday, but he believed it only right to point out why they were so wrong.
He worked his horses hard, but no one turned them out fitter than J.P. McKay, and we welcome this fine horseman into the Hall Of Fame for 2016, with his daughter Jo Noonan representing the family tonight.
DON DOVE – Hall of Fame inductee
A highly successful trainer-driver, Don Dove had something that most colleagues never had – his own sire. After making his mark early on as a driver, Don began training and driving the progeny of Dignus, a grand-son of Light Brigade he had purchased. Many of its 57 winners he trained and drove himself.
The most memorable of these of course was his best-ever pacer, a 1966 colt he named Monara. It won successive A. G. Hunter Cups in 1973 and 74, and many other races – so often with this brilliant beginner going to the lead and then Don playing cat-and-mouse tactics out in front before dashing this son of Dignus away and holding off all comers.
Those who may remember the 1972 Inter Dominion Final when Don was having a little holiday, will agree Monara was something beaten into second place that night.
Don won many races on his brother Eric’s trotter Just Money, along with Nelson’s Report, Lauries Legacy and Kara Miss, and filled in well when winning the 1965 Warragul Cup driving the great little Macaree, and the 1967 Victoria Derby driving Kelly Kid.
When the Victorian Trainers and Drivers Association formed in 1968, he was elected to its first committee. Don is also the father of Trevor and Stephen, both well known horsemen of a few seasons back.
In retirement, Don Dove moved to Queensland in 1998 and it was there he passed away in 2014 at the age of 86.
Wife Betty Dove accepted on behalf of the family.
JACK & JOHN CAMPBELL – Hall of Fame inductees
A year or so after night trotting opened in Melbourne in November, 1947, Jack Campbell, then a farmer near Charlton, recognised the urgent need to breed pacers to fill these ranks in town. In turning his farm into a trotting stud, he was told the best broodmares on either side of the Tasman were from the Pride Of Lincoln family in New Zealand, but the Lancaster family rarely ever sold these to rival breeders.
Jack went to work on Mr Lancaster, and the seven mares that arrived by boat in Sydney from New Zealand for him included four from this famous family, creating a wonderful foundation for his band of mares.
Jack himself raced three pacers back then that won the minimum of seven races in one season needed to go through the classes at the Melbourne Showgrounds in a season – these were Lassie Mactavish, Charltonian and Pacing Gift. Jack Campbell was named ‘Victorian Owner of the Year’, back when you only got a letter from the Board to say you had won such an honour!
Among the numerous classic winners Jack bred was Sheffield Globe, later to win two A.G. Hunter Cups, finishing second in another after dragging a flat tyre for most of the event. That great pacer Dales Gift was a son of Pacing Gift. He also bred Juniors Image, first past the post in a New Zealand Inter Dominion only to lose it in the stewards’ room. The best sire he stood was Noble Scott, six times No.1 sire in Australia. He enjoyed leasing out mares to battlers to get them started. One of these mares foaled the outstanding Achamar Chief.
In 1972 his only son John married Kay, and his father elevated him to be the new studmaster, with the couple moving into the home on the family property then near Boort named Loddon Valley Stud. Until then, his father had often sent out a mare or two to an outside stallion to secure new blood, but with young John now in charge, he began breeding their mares to their own stallions.
Among the best pacers John has bred was the much travelled Flashing Red, winner of two New Zealand Cups and an Auckland Cup. Rip Van Winkle was a star in Australia in its day, while Exotic Strike won the APG 2YO Final, and Turbo Tyson was a multiple classic winner in Tasmania. Jack and John Campbell – breeders of hundreds of winners in Australian harness racing, and worthy inductees to our Hall Of Fame. We invite John Campbell to accept their award.
ELEVATED TO LEGEND STATUS – POPULAR ALM
Since the Victorian Harness Racing Hall Of Fame began in 2009, only two horses have been elevated to Legend’s status – Maori’s Idol and Globe Derby, both standouts in the history of the sport.
Tonight, a third great horse will achieve this rare honour, when we salute the brilliant Popular Alm.
In-bred to Adios, this magnificent looking colt with a soft and silky bay coat, was bred at Bendigo by Arthur Pearce and his wife Gwen, and driven to its early victories by son-in-law John Mamouney. The horse they call ‘Poppy’ was then sold to clients of the Knight stable at Kilmore.
Popular Alm was surely the fastest and most brilliant pacer of them all, setting a world record for a one-mile trial at Moonee Valley in 1983 when stopping the clock at 1:53.2. Many to attend the gallops on a Saturday afternoon at the ‘Valley’ would stay around to watch this horse perform, and he never let them down, often winning by wide margins. One can only wonder what a horse like ‘Poppy’ could pace on a track like today’s Tabcorp Park.
On two occasions, sickness and injury, upset plans for Inter Dominion campaigns. His racing career also looked over when he broke a leg on the training track. After having screws inserted in the leg, there were many well-wishers during his months of recovery, including many get-well cards posted to the Knights from children.
Like a true champion, Popular Alm did return to the racetrack for two further events – winning them both for reinsman/trainer Vin Knight, with hardly a dry eye in the crowd at Moonee Valley. Popular Alm retired having won 49 races and pocketing $710,883 for his happy owners.
At stud he could not match his racing record, though three of his offspring did win in fast times.
To represent the owners of this remarkable pacer is John Green, one of the original syndicate members when the horse was sold to the Knight stable.
VIDEO: Re-live Popular Alm’s 1983 Winfield Cup win at Moonee Valley (2/12/1983)
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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