By David Aldred
Harness Racing will be back at the Royal Queensland Show next month with local pacers set to thrill new and old audiences when they scurry around the tight quarter mile track in the main show arena.
It was just last year that harness racing made a big comeback at the Brisbane Ekka after an absence of a dozen years. The Trots had been, up until 2002 a ring event draw card at the RNA Show with the promotion extending to just about every other regional show around the state.
This year, Racing Queensland, Redcliffe Harness Racing Club, Albion Park Harness Racing Club and local sponsors will support 10 days of harness racing at the Show which will climax with the Garrards Big Dog $10,000 Show Grand Final on Sunday 16 August.
Show fanatics Lola and Julie Weidemann are guaranteed to be back with their team of pacers after winning the major prize last year with Lonesome Mach, a seven-year-old 164 start-veteran which is also likely to be back in the show arena to defend his title after returning to winning form at Tamworth this month. The Weidemann’s have been big supporters of the resurgence of exhibition trotting in Queensland this year at the Toowoomba, Nambour, Gympie, Caboolture and Nanango Shows.
Redcliffe Harness Racing Club president Kerry Ebert said the show was the birthplace of trotting in Queensland, the starting ground for horses to qualify for registered races and in Brisbane two of our greatest ever pacers Lucky Creed and Stormy Water were both show champions..
Ebert had his first drive at Gympie Show over 46 years ago and is part of Racing Queensland’s show race planning committee. Ebert’s son Darren is one of a number of other local trainers planning to have a big team of his horses again at next month’s show.
“I’m really excited about the Show again,” Ebert said. “It’s been just great to see the trots back at the regional shows this year and there is nothing like racing at the Ekka “I experienced it as a driver and now my son is and I can tell you that you just cannot beat the excitement of being on the track in the Grand Final race when its raced as a curtain raiser to the fireworks, the atmosphere is fantastic, like nothing else. “There will be lots of kids getting to see our harness racing for the first time and they’ll love it. “We all need to recognize how important it is to introduce trotting to a new generation of supporters and this is a perfect way to do it,”
See it for yourself between the 7th and 16th August at Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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