NZ HARNESS NEWS
South Otago trainer Brian Norman turned back the clock more than 20 years with a hat-trick of wins at Forbury Park on Thursday night.
Norman produced trotter Glendhu Gem and maideners, Whata Razzle Dazzle and Easton Foxglove, to win the first three races at the Dunedin meeting.
It was the second time the horseman had scored a training treble.
Norman trained and drove Anerobatics, Double Trouble and Peter Afella at Ascot Park in 1996.
The horseman trains a team of 12 horses at Tahakopa on the popular Catlins tourist route.
Norman mixes his training regime between work on his own track, beach training and using the Wyndham racecourse, which is less than an hour away.
The trainer’s winning treble came via one surprise victory and two well deserved wins at short odds.
Glendhu Gem turned her form around and showed form like her bloodlines would suggest when winning for driver Nathan Williamson.
The four-year-old is the younger half-sister of well-performed ex-Northern square-gaiter Gentleman Sir.
She was a $6000 New Zealand Premier Yearling Sale purchase in 2015.
Whata Razzle Dazzle and Easton Foxglove both scored deserved wins at sub-$2 odds after good placed form leading in to their races.
Both pacers are by Washington VC, who stands at Norman’s brother Keith’s Bryleigh Stud, near Edendale.
Later on the Forbury Park card, Night School scored another victory for the sire when she won her first start for the Tim Butt and Jonny Cox stable.
The mare showed she was still a work in progress by pacing roughly before the home turn, but rallied well in the straight to win.
Cox credited stable worker Jordan Simpson for getting Night School to the winners’ circle.
Cox is working on developing a full brother to Field Marshal at the trans-Tasman stable’s Canterbury base.
The two-year-old brother of Australasia’s fastest ever pacer, named Surreal, is showing early promise and is reportedly showing similar traits to his older brother when he was the same age.
Though unlike Field Marshal, Surreal will not race as a two-year-old.
- NZ Harness News
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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