WITH less than 70 days to go until the Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival, it’s time to reflect on some of the historic moments of the great event.
SHE had a name that had no correlation to her ability, she was the first horse from the Sunshine State to win either a Bathurst Tiara or Crown and she had the first female driver to win a title at the Annual Bathurst Carnival.
In March 1997 the tough little filly, bred in Rockhampton, with the unlikely name of SHEZA FAKE gave the Queensland based female driver Julie Weidemann one of her biggest thrills in Harness Racing.
To this day and with now 60 either Crown or Tiara’s decided, there have been only two female drivers to bathe in the glory of the victory – Julie Weidemann in 1997 and Amanda Turnbull in 2015.
This is quite surprising, given both the quantity and quality of female drivers currently donning the silks in Australia.
SHEZA FAKE was broken in by her breeder Tony Burgoyne, who then sent her to the Weidemann sisters Julie and Lola to qualify her and get her started on a racing career. She was paid up for the Bathurst Series, so Tony’s instructions were “you’ve got to be in it to win it”.
It is over 850kms from Clifton in Queensland to Bathurst so Julie took on the task of being the first Queenslander to conquer Bathurst.
“No-one in our family were keen about a trip to Bathurst so I put my hand up,” said Julie last week.
“We finished second to SANCTUM in our heat and then won a Semi-final so just needed a good draw for the Final,” explained Julie.
Well history shows that the marble in the draw wasn’t kind to SHEZA FAKE – the dreaded number six, which meant starting from the outside of the front line.
“I let the dust settle after the start,” said Julie, “and then took off around the field to sit in the breeze position.”
That was the winning move with the tough little filly sired by the record breaking stallion FAKE LEFT.
In becoming the first female to win the Bathurst Tiara, Julie left in her wake legendary reinsmen Brian Hancock and Steve Turnbull.
To add to the excitement of the night for Julie, she also won the Gold Crown Consolation aboard GREEK GAMBIT for Victorian trainer Peter Manning.
Today Julie Weidemann is the most successful female trainer in Australian Harness Racing, having now trained around 2,300 winners. No bad for a young girl who started out in the Equine Industry taking ponies to Shows around Queensland.
“The judges didn’t seem to like us Weidemann girls, so we tried our hand at Harness Racing,” said Julie jokingly. The rest, as they say, is history.
Lola Weidemann has left her mark as well, having now driven more than 2,800 winners – second only to Kerryn Manning amongst Australia’s gifted female drivers.
SHEZA FAKE is now in foal to ART MAJOR for the Weidemann sisters, but she could have been lost to the Industry a couple of years ago.
The Rockhampton floods of 2013 washed away the fences of the paddock in which SHEZA FAKE was grazing and she went missing for two weeks. Fortunately her owner Tony Burgoyne did eventually locate and rescue her.
Well the Countdown continues and it is now less than 70 days to Finals night.
Bathurst trainer Chris Frisby is about the hit the ‘campaign trail’ with two well-bred two-year-olds, which he is aiming at the Bathurst Carnival.
MAJOR OCCASION, an ART MAJOR filly, makes her debut at Bendigo on 17th January, whilst CAPTAIN COSMONAUT, a SPORTSWRITER colt, is ready to fly as soon as a field is assembled.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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