05 July 2019 | Albion Park Harness Racing Club Media
Tomorrow night the Albion Park Harness Racing Club pays tribute to two legendary pacers, Lucky Creed and Paleface Adios, as well as two well-known industry people, Wayne Wilson and John C McMullen.
Lucky Creed
The night features the fourth consecutive Lucky Creed Open Pace as race 5 at 7.11pm.
Lucky Creed was best known for winning 24 consecutive races during 1969 and 1970. The pacer was trained by Merv Wanless and driven by Vic Frost, he raced at a number of tracks in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. As a three year old he won the Redcliffe Derby and the Rocklea 3YO Futurity. His career highlights include a track record at the old Albion Park and winning the 1970 Miracle Mile before being sold to America.
He is still remembered as one of the toughest horses ever seen – at one stage in November 1969 he won 4 races in 8 days, had a 10 day ‘break’ and then won 5 races in the next 10 days!
The “J C McMullen”
The inaugural running of The “J. C. McMullen” takes place as race 7 at 7.40pm.
John (Hollywood) McMullen was the doyen of Queensland harness racing for more than half a century and for these achievements he was one of the original Queensland Harness Racing ‘Hall of Fame’ inductees.
His success was prominent in the late 1970’s and 1980’s when he bought a property at Albion, within walking distance to the Albion Park track. He refurbished the property and created a state of the art training complex stabling up to 36 horses.
During this time he had many successful racing expeditions in North America hence the nickname “Hollywood”. He won at multiple American race tracks and exported over 100 horses to the states. While he was away his sons Chris and John took over the Albion stables and both made a name for themselves as trainer/drivers.
McMullen also made his stamp on the Qld breeding industry by importing stallions and standing them at stud with John Gibson at Success Stud. He had a great amount of joy with horses he bred including Viking Reign, Monty Reign, Maker Reign and Spirit of Reign.
Sadly J. C. McMullen passed away in September 2018 but he left an incredible mark on the harness racing industry.
Four of his grandkids, Peter, Narissa, Dannielle and Taleah, followed in his footsteps and are in fact driving at tomorrow night’s Albion Park meeting—you may also spot the famous colours (red with a white sash) going around.
The Wayne Wilson Memorial Paleface Adios Classic
The two year old feature race starts as race 8 on the program at 8.10pm.
Wayne Wilson was considered one of harness racing’s finest broadcasters, beginning at Albion Park in the early seventies with Village Kid’s Inter Dominion his swan song in 1986.
Subsequently he became the Queensland voice of thoroughbred racing until his retirement in 2010.
It is more than appropriate that his memory is perpetuated with the Paleface Adios Classic as he called the popular pacer in many of his wins when he regularly campaigned at Albion Park.
Paleface Adios was trained by Colin Pike and owned by his wife Shirley Pike and competed throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The talented pacer had 240 starts, for 108 wins, 43 seconds and 25 thirds over his career for more than $500,000 in prizemoney. He is second to Cane Smoke for the all-time most lifetime wins for an Australian race horse.
Wayne Wilson was a great friend to the Albion Park Club and will never be forgotten.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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