With his win at Bunbury last night behind the Greg and Skye Bond trained $51.50 chance Jumbo Jet champion reinsman Colin Brown brought up his 2800th winner in a career spanning some 39 years. Of that tally 369 have been for the Greg and Skye Bond training partnership.
Brown drove his first winner on 9th October 1976 at the now defunct York track behind a gelding called Go To It which was trained by Brown’s mentor Jim Schrader.
“Jimmy gave us more speeches about life than he did about training and driving although he didn’t always practise what he preached”, Brown said recently.
Schrader never rushed the careers of aspiring young reinsmen and both Brown and Schrader’s son Peter went through three six-month Reinsman’s Schools before they were allowed to apply for their country licence.
“It was a lot harder than it is now. At that time drivers were allowed to push out at anytime in races and there were a host of old-time hard-school drivers out there and they were very good at driving on the margin”, Brown said.
It was almost impossible to hold your position when the likes of a Jim Schrader or Alan Woodworth decided that they wanted to get away from the rails”, he added.
Among Western Australian reinsmen only Chris Lewis (4803) has driven more winners.
While Lewis has won a number of both State and Perth drivers premierships Brown is yet to win such a title with his best efforts being three times runner-up in the Perth Drivers Premiership behind Chris Lewis, Fred Kersley and Trevor Warwick.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
