The Tasmanian Harness Awards presentation dinner at Wrest Point Hotel Casino in Hobart on Saturday night and the time honoured Edgar Tatlow Medal was taken out by veterinarian Dr Art Meeker .
Meeker came to Tasmania in 1972 from Oregon to establish Neptune Stud in Tasmania.
Neptune Stud boosted Tasmania’s breeding stocks by importing stallions Holy Sand and Scotch Luck.
Holy Sand was very well received and his progeny won many races and Scotch Luck also was well patronised.
Meeker also bought Duke Duane to Tasmania to stand at Neptune Stud his best progeny was a top liner called The Yank. Duke Duane sired 304 live foals for 129 starters that resulted in 82 individual winners
Neptune also bred Bosun Neptune that won about 20 races and was placed in close to 50.
The stud houses over 300 mares in its hay days..
Barrie Rattray was head trainer and driver at Neptune in the 80s and he won numerous trainer and driver premierships.
Meeker sold the stud in 1990 and for the last 24 odd years has been focussedon his mobile vet practice.
Previous winners of the Edgar Tatlow Medal are Doug Martin (2001), Peter Cooley (2002), Keith Stanley (2003), Pauline Barker (2004), Darrell Rockliff (2005), Don Cornish (2006), Eric Fleming (2007), Eric Bean (2008), Tem Fish (2009), Henry Pullen (2010), Doug McKillop (2011), Gerald Gee (2012), Rod Burgess (2013) and Kevin Gillies (2014).
In a sour note to the evening the police were called to an incident awards dinner.
Head of racing integrity Tony Murray said that stewards had opened an inquiry into the incident which would continue early this week and, in the meantime, had decided not to allow any horses associated with those involved to start in a race.
Mr Murray said that the ban applied to horses trained by Nathan Ford, Dylan Ford, Rohan Hillier and Troy Hillier.
Witnesses reported that the incident took place in the early hours of Sunday morning in a bar at Wrest Point Casino and involved one party attacking another.
Stewards took no action against a fifth trainer who came to the assistance of the victim.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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