R.G. (BOB) YOUNG

Robert Graham (Bob) Young like his counterpart Doug Watts, was another fine reinsman never to win a Drivers Premiership. Nor did he annex a NZ Cup to his fine record but few other achievements escaped him especially when it came to top line square gaiters. His forte was the trotter and he had the perfect hands to do the job as evidenced with his being the leading driver of trotters in a season six times (1949/50 – 19 wins; 1950/1 – 10; 1951/2 – 9; 1960/1 – 14; 1963/4 – 15; 1968/9 – 12). Bob Young was highly respected within the game having a low key outlook which he preferred.

Bob Young was mainly a free-lance driver apart from his own stable horses and those of his father Jim’s. He often drove second stringers for the larger stables in major races or for owner-trainers and was very popular with punters due to his outstanding strike rate.

Born in Scotland in 1906, the young Scotsman was aged 23 in early December 1929 when he arrived in NZ from Glasgow, having been offered a position at Sir John McKenzie’s Roydon Lodge by his private trainer Bobby Dunn. Initial duties included carting oats before obtaining the opportunity to commence race driving when taking a couple of horses (owner [Sir] John McKenzie) over to the 1929 West Coast Christmas circuit while his boss concentrated on the local Ashburton meeting. At what may have been his first ever drive on Boxing Day (26 Dec 1929), Danny Boy ran third to Royal Comrade while in the next race of the day Loretta Napoleon on debut won the Westport TC’s Progress Handicap from Dillon Chimes for him. Bob Young was to win the Waimangaroa Hcp (saddle event) with Royal Iroquois on the second day. His seasonal tally (total wins 1929/30 season were three) moved to three when Loretta Napoleon won the Westland Cup at Hokitika on 3 January 1930. All three winners were trained by his boss R (Bobby) Dunn.

After writing to his father and advising him that racing was booming in NZ, it was only eight months later that Jim and older brother Jim Junior and eight horses arrived from Glasgow. Jim Young initially set up close to the Addington track about where the TAB administration building is today, occupying space with the likes of Vic Alborn and Freeman Holmes. The Young’s then moved their training property to Tankerville Street where Hillmorton High School is located St today. All eight of the team that came from Scotland were to win races for the Young’s whose racing colours were red jacket, gold braces and red cap.

Bob Young’s only winner in 1930/31 was Holly Bank at Forbury Park. Four winners were the order of the day in 1931/32 – Major Lind, Colonial Boy, Telling and Stanley T, a chestnut trotter brought out from Scotland by his father won the NZMTC’s Stewards Handicap off 60 yards giving Bob Young his first success at Addington. Stanley T had won his first four races in the 1930/31 season when driven by Jim Young junior. Jim junior soon returned by boat to his beloved Scotland from which he had never really wanted to leave.

Six winning drives resulted in the 1932/33 season for Bob Young, however, it was difficult for him to make a major impression during the nineteen thirties with limited driving opportunities available. Stanley T was to again win the NZMTC’s Stewards Hcp in the 1932/33, this time off 96 yards. Whilst a tricky proposition, he and Sandy N, two of the horses that arrived from Scotland went through to the better classes. Among driving successes for Bob Young during the thirties were Scottish bred Stanley T, Sandy N, Colonial Boy and Major Lind plus John Jinks, Harlequin, Lord Axworthy, Sage King, Sentiment, Axworth and Allworthy.

In 1936 Bob Young landed his biggest win to date driving Tasmanian pacer Evicus in the Ashburton Cup. His stablemate Icevus won the 1939 NZFFA for Young plus a further eight races. Wins continued in the early nineteen forties with Chateau, Sure Lady, Erinack (1943 Greymouth Cup), Worthy Cross and Suzerain. It wasn’t until the mid-forties that his number of seasonal winners improved above single digits. This commenced in the 1944/45 season when his eight wins included two with Double Peter (Easter Hcp/Cup, Champion FFA). Overall, Bob Young drove Double Peter to three of his fourteen victories. A season later (1945/46) he “rocketed” into sixth equal place with Jack Pringle and Ron Donald on the drivers premiership with twenty winners. His winners included Sir Michael, his first NZ Derby success together with Wellington/Champion Stakes and NZ Futurity aboard Sir Michael.

Bob Young also featured as an owner at this time with Raven (three wins as owner/driver/trainer), Golden Shadow (two wins; one for James Bryce jnr/GN Derby; other for owner/driver Bob Young and trainer Jim Young in Thomas Wilford Memorial at Trentham), including a second in the Methven Cup to Lucky Loyal and Sure Lady, winner of six; first two for Jim Young as owner/trainer with Bob Young driving; the latter four saw Bob Young owning and driving while his father Jim continued training duties. Sure Lady won the Avon Hcp Trot and finished second in the 1947 Dominion Hcp for them.

In 1946/47 season, considerable success followed with Sir Michael (Metropolitan Challenge/ later years Cross Stakes twice, NZFFA), Sir Vivian (Sapling Stakes; NZ Derby following season) and Aerial Scott (numerous wins – see later). The 1948/49 and 1949/50 seasons were significant with Bob Young finishing second both seasons to Maurice Holmes in the drivers premiership.

His father Jim Young, was a quiet, tough but fair man who soon became a leading trainer. Employed in the Young stables over the years were Jack Grant (later won trainer’s premierships with Derek Jones), Reg Stockdale, Claude Balker and Kevin Murray. Jack Grant first worked for Jim Young, learning to ride horses before heading off to school. He would work them before school, two on a lead as he rode one. There were about eighteen boxes to be cleaned after school. Grant worked in Bob Young’s stable after the war working with horses such as Auckland Cup winner Victory Globe and ID Trotting Grand Final winner Aerial Scott.

Among Jim Young’s many outstanding training successes, with Bob as regular driver were :

• AERIAL SCOTT, T2:09.6, $27,030, fourteen wins (eleven for Young’s) including Rowe Cup, NZMTC Stewards Hcp, NZ Trotting FFA/High Class Trot/Reta Peter Hcp twice, clean sweep of ID Trotters heat and inaugural Grand Final (track record time of T4:24.0 for two miles); leading stake earning trotter 1946/47 (£4,360), 1947/48 (£6,365). His dam Air Flow was trained by Bobby Dunn (nine wins) who Bob Young worked for on arrival from Scotland

• ACCLAMATION, T2:08.0, $18,878, ten wins; trained for her first two successes by J Wilson, Ashburton joining Jim Young’s stable during her four-year-old season. Young prepared her for eight (seven driven by Bob Young) including NZ Trotting Stakes at three, NZ and Addington Trotting Stakes 4/5, Dominion Hcp, third against pacers in Timaru Cup. Acclamation’s dam Raclaim was a daughter of Trix Pointer (NZ Cup) and full sister of Wrackler (NZ Cup, Dominion Hcp); Acclamation was dam of three winners, trotting descendants Top Evander (VIC Trotters Derby, Cambridge Trotting Stakes – 3T), Blue Sky Commander (T1:57.4) and pacing descendants Easton Alliance (1:49.0US), Vanlo Yorker (WA Pacing Cup), prolific QLD free-for-aller Trois Frere, good juvenile Joker Man

• GAY BELWIN, T2:15.6, $19,440, eleven wins (six for Young’s) including Rowe Cup, ID Trotters heat and second ever Grand Final, leading stake earning trotter 1950/51 (£6,395)
• INDOMITABLE, T2:12,2, $11,224, eight wins (seven for Young’s), Rowe Cup, ATC Stewards Hcp
• SINGLE TASK, T2:07.6, $19,005, twelve wins (eleven for Young’s), Rowe Cup, NZ Trotting FFA, Otago/Christchurch/Association Hcps, second in two Dominion Hcps; dam of two winners

• SURE CHARGE, T2:09.0, $11,745, thirteen wins, St Andrews/Victory/Railway/Winter Hcp Trots
• STANLEY T, T2:13.2EU (recorded in Scotland prior to export to NZ), $3,342 NZ earnings only, six NZ wins, four for older brother Jim Young jnr and two NZMTC Stewards Hcp Trots for Bob Young
• VICTORY GLOBE, 2:07.0, $28,260, twelve NZ wins (Bob Young drove in eleven victories), CF Mark Memorial, Auckland Cup, Champion Hcp and once exported to Western Australia, August Cup, ID Pacing Consolation
• CROUGHTON, 2:10.5, $3,400, one solitary win. In 1948, gave his trainer his first Derby success although son Bob had already driven the winner of the blue riband event in 1945 with Sir Michael. Sire, dam sire of Black Tryax (Welcome Stakes, Timaru Nursery), Swartz Pete (NZ Flying Mile)

In an interview with Frank Marrion, published in the Harness Racing Weekly in June 2000, former Prebbleton trainer Jack Grant (died March 2004) recalled a number of interesting and amusing incidents when working in the Young’s stables :

‘Hughie Greenhorn was a prominent horseman whose father Dave knew the Young’s in Scotland. He was associated with the stable and recalls buying King Cobra mare Carntyne off the Young’s for £10. “We set her for a race at Greymouth and had a decent go at the double.” Greenhorn bought a house in Wrights Road near Addington Raceway with the winnings. Greenhorn recalled towards the end the horses were in Jim’s name, but it was Bob doing most of the work. “Jimmy did all the wheeling and dealing, although Bob was a lot more cunning than most thought.”

At an early West Coast meeting Young was trailing the field with a trotter pretending he had broken gear. Young began yelling “I’m bolting – I can’t hold him. They all moved to the outside, and Bob trotted up the fence to win,” said Grant.

Grant said Bob Young never drank but did smoke a bit until his later years. Wally Gracie who had the “Edition” horses smoked like a train. “Whenever Bob was in a race and was turning around afterwards to come back to the birdcage, Wally would put two smokes in his mouth and light them. Bob would walk into the driver’s room with his mouth open and Wally would stick one in. He was very business-like. He would just do his thing and then go home, when the rest of us would hang around. He wasn’t a terribly funny fellow – rather down to earth – but he had a sense of humour of his own.”

Grant recalled another time where Young appeared to have a race won when a horse slipped up the fence and beat him. “There was this fellow in the old members stand going crook at him. Bob went looking for him and when he found him, he gave him a bloody good barrel. He said he didn’t mind if someone did it from the public stand, but a member should know better.”

Grant says Bob Young was like his father – quiet and tough, but fair. “On one occasion, Bob had been away in Auckland and had asked a couple of the stable boys to keep his lawn mown. They didn’t do it because they felt it wasn’t part of the job. When Bob got back he said ‘is that right,’ and sacked them. But whenever we were away on trips he would pull you to one side and ask if you had any money. He would give you a quid – which was a lot in those days – just on the quiet. And there was always a good sling when we won.”

In the 1960s, Arthur Pratt’s Light Brigade stallion Break Thorough was one who tended to win when he trotted but not when he didn’t (often). Bob Young was engaged to handle him in the 1967 NZ Trotting Championship at Addington. “As they lined up, Bob had him facing the stand and when told to swing him around, he said just leave me here.” As the tapes were released, “Young quietly swung Break Through around and off he trotted like a toff, leading all the way to beat the hot favourite Mighty Chief by two lengths at 22 to one” (second round of heats as had not started on first night, 1m 5 furs). Break Thorough “raced in the Consolation on Easter Cup Day and did exactly the same thing in a time four seconds faster than Final winner Asia Minor (over two miles). Bob always maintained you should never rush a trotter early on, particularly around the Showgrounds bend at Addington. He said it was better to lose a few lengths getting settled than trying to get handy.’

After Jim Young died in 1955 Bob Young took over training the stable team although he preferred to drive as he considered there was little money in training. Unlike other trainers such as Derek Jones who had sons (Peter) and grandsons (Mark) to carry on the family involvement, Bob Young’s son Robert was not one to do so.

Bob Young’s golden patch of major winning drives occurred between the mid-forties and mid-fifties. During this decade with trotters he won the first two Inter-Dominion Trotting Grand Finals with Aerial Scott (1948, Auckland) and Gay Belwin (1951, Christchurch for Mrs E. Berryman), four Rowe Cups with Aerial Scott (1946), Single Task (1949), Gay Belwin (1950) and Indomitable (1952), Dominion Hcp with Acclaimation (1949; second Sure Lady 1947) and three NZ Trotting Free-For-Alls with Aerial Scott (1947, 1948) and Single Task 1950). With pacers he took out Sapling Stakes/Great Northern Derby (Sir Vivian), New Brighton Cup twice (First Victory, Thelma Globe), NZ Derby (Croughton), Auckland Cup (Victory Globe) and NZFFA/Champion Stakes (Sir Michael).

Major driving successes for Bob Young included :

• ID Trotters Championship – Aerial Scott, Gay Belwin

• ID heats – Selwyn Hanover (two), Sassenach (two), Merrin
• ID Trotters Consolation/CPTC Trotting Cup – Queens Cord
• Dominion Hcp – Acclamation, Au Fait
• Rowe Cup – Aerial Scott, Single Task, Gay Belwin, Indomitable
• Auckland Cup – Victory Globe
• GN Derby – Sir Vivian, Cardinal Garrison
• NZ Derby – Sir Michael, Croughton
• NZ Oaks – Fair Loan (two wins, NZ Oaks for Young), Have Care
• NZFFA – Icevus, Sir Michael
• Easter Cup – Double Peter, Patchwork, Master Alan
• NZ Trotting Championship – Markalan ** third in Dominion Hcp, went to USA and started in Roosevelt International Trot with Bob Young driving him
• NZ Trotting FFA – Aerial Scott (twice), Single Task, Supervise, Mighty Hanover, Queens Cord
• Welcome/Timaru Nursery Stakes – Courtier
• New Brighton Cup – First Victory, Patchwork, Thelma Globe
• Sapling Stakes – Sir Vivian, Lady Wexford (tr/dr Bob Young, her only win), Jonboy Star (six of seven wins as tr/dr), Glamour
• Methven Cup – Fourth Edition (ten wins, nine with Bob Young as driver; other win was Easter Cup dr Derek Jones), Highland Step, Glenurguhart
• Hannon Memorial – Recent Choice (ten wins, three driven by Bob Young including Hannon Memorial), Lochgair
• Banks Peninsula Trotting Cup – Merrin
• Ashburton Cup – Evicus, Avante
• Timaru Cup – Highland Custom (eight wins as driver, tr Don Grice)
• Waikouaiti Cup – Kran
• Geraldine Cup – Chief Command, Highland Mecca
• Dunedin Cup – Lady Belmer, Patchwork, Atanui
• Greymouth Cup – Erinack
• Cross Stakes – Sir Michael (twice), Becky Morano, Carina Star, Avante
• Champion Stakes – Sir Michael, Courtier, Royal Deeside
• Queens Birthday Stakes – Selwyn Hanover
• NZ Pacing Championship – Chamfer
• NZ Hambletonian – Battle Cry, Supervise, Mighty Hanover
• NI Challenge Stakes – Distant Star
• NZMTC Three Year Old Championship – Sassenach
• NZ Futurity Stakes- Sir Michael

During the 1940/41 season Bob Young trained his first winner when Mendel chose the second day of the NZ Cup carnival (14 November 1940, Ellesmere Hcp) to salute the judge in Young’s colours. The Adioo Guy gelding had earlier won four races for tr/dr David (DM) Kerr.

As a trainer and more often than not driver of his horses, Bob Young met further success as outlined below :

• AU FAIT, T2:08.0, $19,814, fourteen wins (ten for Young), NZMTC Stewards Hcp, Dominion Hcp, Christchurch/Greyhound Hcp trots, NZ 2yo Trotters Mile record of T2:13.2TT at Addington

• MIGHTY HANOVER, T2:07.0, $19,850, fourteen wins (three for Bob Young, Hambletonian Hcp, NZ Trotting FFA, Worthy Queen Hcp [dr Kevin Murray], three for Ray Norton incl National Trot as fourteen year old in world record time for 1m 3 furs)
• BATTLE CRY, T2:07.4, $33,764, twenty three wins including two against pacers (four wins for Bob Young including NZMTC Stewards/Hambletonian/Worthy Queen Hcps, ATC Remuera Hcp), other wins for various trainers, NZ Trotting Stakes – 3T, two ID Trotters heats and Grand Final, Rowe Cup, CF Mark Memorial against pacers

• QUEENS CORD, T2:06.0, $26,150, sixteen wins; nine as trainer, driving her in six; CPTC Trotting Cup, NZ Trotting FFA/Ashburton Boxing Day Trot twice, ID Trotters Consolation, second in Dominion Hcp, leading stake earning trotter of 1964/65 (£5,030); dam of six winners, third dam of Lacey Truscott (Redwood – 2T; grand dam of Sundons Courage, VICSS – 2T/Silver 4T, Breeders Crown – 4T), Lady Clare (Tatlow – 2T), Truscott Dawn (Redwood – 2T)
• AVANTE, 2:02.2, $19,100, twelve wins as tr/dr including two dead heats, Cross Stakes, Ashburton/National Cups, Avante was the last big name pacer Bob Young trained
• ADORATO, 2:03.3US, $129,140, seven NZ wins (six as driver), Hororata Cup
• ROYAL DEESIDE, 2:04.0US, $33,814, five NZ wins (three as driver), Champion/Canterbury/Canterbury Park Stakes, Geraldine Cup
• TURBULENCE, 2:08.6, $5,540, eight wins, seven as driver
• HIGHLAND MECCA, 2:10.7, $3,640, five wins, Geraldine Cup

One horse he trained but only nominally for a couple of starts was Captain Padero when he won the Welcome Stakes in 1980 driven by Derek Jones. This was due to regular trainer Trevor Thomas campaigning Canis Minor and Stormy Morn at Sydney Interdominions (Harold Park).

Like a number of others of his era, compulsory retirement from race day driving caught up with Bob Young in the 1970/71 season, the same year that saw Bill Doyle, Jack Litten and Doug Watts also retire. Young still managed to drive thirty four winners that season which gave him a career tally of 784 winners spread over forty two seasons (only two of which he did not drive a winner). His final winning drive was Mark Gentry (Second Canterbury Juvenile Stakes) for trainer Jim Dalgety at Canterbury Park’s 19 June 1971 meeting at Addington. His final drive the same evening was with favourite Fortunate beaten a head by Crystal John (Derek Jones) in the final race (Second LS Smart Stakes) of the season.

Bob Young had the first of twenty NZ Cup drives in 1932 (Kohara) with the last in 1967 (Rocky Star). His best result was placing second with Patchwork in the 1961 NZ Cup, beaten a neck by eleven year old Invicta and Steve Edge. Young fished third on Master Alan in Cardigan Bay’s 1963 Cup victory while he had earlier piloted Double Peter into fourth in 1946.

Whilst he never won the drivers premiership Bob Young came close, on five occasions he placed second : in 1948/9 with thirty three wins to Maurice Holmes’s thirty six; 1949/50, thirty seven to Holmes’s fifty two; 1958/9 twenty eight to Holmes’s fifty three; in 1963/4 with forty three, his best winning season to Holmes’s sixty two and in 1967/68 with forty one to Peter Wolfenden’s fifty four. In his final season of driving, 1970/71 he finished third equal on thirty four with Doug Mangos behind Peter Wolfenden (52) and Jack Smolenski (35).

During the 1965/66 season, Young was comfortably leading the driver’s premiership from Peter Wolfenden, Maurice Holmes and Derek Jones when at a February Canterbury Park meeting he broke his arm in a spectacular smash turning for home at Addington. The leader and favourite, Robin Dundee’s brother Donald Dundee was leading when he suddenly propped and fell. Horses, carts and drivers were sent flying in all directions including Bob Young and his drive Bar None. At tote odds of £38, Le Whip driven by Owen Quinlan who was last at the half mile prevailed in the Airway Stakes.

For many years several well-known horsemen trained daily up to one hundred horses on Addington Raceway. After retiring from race driving, Young continued to bring a small team into Addington to work them braving an already busy Lincoln Road each morning. He was one of the last to do so.

Bob Young was a quiet man who loved gardening spending most afternoons in his beloved rose garden in Fendalton. Jack Grant said that he would never miss feeding his horses. “Then one morning he rang a friend and asked him to feed up because he wasn’t feeling too well. He died later that day.”

Bob Young died on 16 October 1981 aged 75. He had married Vere in 1943 after meeting her in the Milky Way milk bar, a regular venue after a movie or the races. They had four children, son Robert and daughters Diane, Margaret and Janice with five grandchildren at the time of his death.

Peter Craig

10 September 2019

Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com

Driving The Future Of Harness Racing