Courtney Slater’s love of the standardbred horse can be credited to her much loved parents and her grandfather Allan Anderton who had his granddaughter in the sulky from a very young age. Allan, one of the sports true characters, trained a super horse in the 90’s called Al’s Court 1:50.6 ($711,625) and the winner of 84 races in Victoria and the USA including the VHRC 3YO Cup – and was driven in several of those wins by a much younger and fitter son-in-law, Ian Slater.
Goodtime Lodge and Goodtime Racing are owned and operated by the Slaters – let’s not forget Courtney’s rockstar husband Mark Driscoll. They have a standardbred breeding and training facility with three farms, comprising 232 acres at Elliminyt and Beeac, just outside Colac in Victoria’s magnificent Western District. With rich volcanic soils and with a perfect temperate climate, the Goodtime farms are ideally located to breed, raise and race standardbred champions.
Courtney and Mark have developed an amazing training centre on 82 acres at the Beeac property. Ian, along with his great mate “Freddy-world’s- best-welder-Clarke”, took on the task of constructing a very impressive 820 metre training track, day yards, 8 horse walker, swimming pool and state of the art stables.
While the family has had a plethora of exciting moments in the sport, one that freely comes to mind for all family members is an astute decision made by Ian and Judi to buy the $65,000 filly out of Bella Joy at the APG Sydney Sale in 2016.
The now named outstanding 1:52.0 race mare, Goodtime Heaven has a 30-15-3-3 career record and $284,687 in stakes. This beautiful mare has a wonderful ownership group that includes the Slaters and is trained by Courtney. Goodtime Heaven has just been crowned the 2020 Victorian Aged Pacing Mare of the Year.
The Slaters have already entered all 100 % of their yearlings to be sold in 2022 with the team at Neds-APG and with the way Courtney prepares yearlings, they are certainly going to be in demand come sales day.
When Ian was asked why he had already entered all his yearlings for the 2022 Neds-APG Yearling Sales he said; “While it’s the only Industry Owned-Not For Profit–Sales Company, it’s also got a hair-raising $3M pot of gold on offer in races and bonuses like free entry (until 16th August). While our association and friendship runs deep with David and his team at Neds-APG, the bottom line is that APG’s 2022 offering will see graduates compete for the most prizemoney in APG’s history and vendors like us will be eligible for more benefits than at any point in APG’s 33 year history. We just need to be a part of the excitement and believe all breeders looking to sell in 2022 should come HOME and enter their lots with our only industry owned, non for profit yearling sales company, Neds–APG”.
Mark and Courtney have 3 wonderful children and if Indi, Zarah and Tarj have even a hint of the love of harness like their parents and grandparents do, the Goodtime brand will have many more winners in the years to come.
Be like Ian, Judi, Courtney and Mark and click the link below to take secure your place in history.
ENTER YOUR YEARLING FOR APG’S 2022 SALES
To be eligible for FREE ENTRY (NSW & VIC) and vendor bonuses, entries must be received by the 16th August.
Please phone Linda Graham – 0428 955 998 or e-mail her at linda@apgold.com.au and she’ll be pleased to assist you with your online yearling sale entries & enquiries.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
