10 October 2022 | Ashleigh Paikos
With the ladies of pacing continuing to shine in WA, it was only fitting that Emily Johnson celebrated her first driving treble on Friday at the daytime meeting at Bunbury.
“It was my first double, turned treble,”
“It was such a great feeling, driving a winner always gives me a thrill, but to have three in one meeting is just crazy,”
“After crossing the line each time, I was smiling, I just love it.” She said.
With four drives on her card for Friday, she made it three in a row from race five onwards, kicking off the celebrations with Sport Sport Sport coming out on top at $8.50 odds for trainer Aiden De Campo.
“I did not expect to have so much success with my drives. I thought Sport Sport Sport was my best chance based on last start and gear changes. I thought the other two were looking more like place chances even though Mega Mach was favourite, he likes to misbehave at the beginning, so that was my only concern,” said Johnson.
After leading all the way in race six on board All Aussie Mach, the pair walked away with the win for trainer Dennis Roche, bringing up the five-year-old’s fifth career win after almost eight months between wins.
Although Mega Mach wasn’t on his best behaviour again at the start, he was able to overcome his slight indiscretion, and was back down and pacing quickly, with Johnson able to position herself behind the leader for the duration of the 2503m journey, but with just under 200m to go Johnson found herself outside the leader, coming home the better to win by 1.2m in 2:03:9.
“About halfway down the straight on Mega Mach I didn’t think he was going to get there, and he gave it his all for me and just got there in the end.”
After making the move from New Zealand in December 2020 with the realisation that there were more opportunities here in WA than there were back home, Johnson hasn’t looked back, she’s had 147 drives for 12 wins after making her debut late in the 2021 season.
“Before the race is when I get the most nervous, during the race I concentrate too much to think about anything but the race.”
“Western Australia seems to hold a lot of opportunity, So I will probably stick around here for a few years, driving.”
“I love working with the horses at Four Diamonds Pacing, watching them develop, so I could see myself eventually training a couple.”
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
