Queensland Harness Racing Wrap - September 4

Catch up on the week's harness racing action in our weekly review, thanks to Darren Clayton.

THE GOOD

It was Saturday March 23, 2019 when Gary Whitaker drove Needle to victory at Albion Park and at the time, no one could ever have been able to foresee what would happen the following night.

That victory would be the last career victory for the 16-time winning mare Needle which Whitaker partnered to claim the Jim McNeil Championship the previous year and had driven in all 13 of her Queensland victories.

It would also prove to be the last win for Gary Whitaker, temporarily at least.

Life for the Whitaker family changed the next day, on March 24 when Gary and his children Lara and Josh were involved in an accident at the Redcliffe track.

While wife Joedy continued to train a small team and even made a return to race driving herself and Lara even made her pony trots debut last year, Gary was happy to play the support role in the background.

But, ask most people involved in harness racing and they will tell you, it becomes like an addiction, and it is hard to walk away from.

Gary found himself ready to make a return to race driving this season and in a low-key return started driving some of Joedy’s runners.

Time marches on and since Needle won her last race, she has had her first foal, with that filly racing by the name of Pinnie, the two-year-old filly claiming the QBRED Triad Final on QSTARS night for her first victory.

Two weeks on from that win and after 20 race starts that had returned six minor placings, Gary was headed to the Sunday Marburg fixture with two drives on the card.

Lining up for his 21^st drive since returning to the sulky, Gary was partnering with the James Lewin-trained Circle Line in the fourth race of the day.

Spearing the 12-year-old off the gate from the outside barrier, the pair were in front within 100 metres and from the front, it was a textbook drive for the tight showground circuit.

Controlling the tempo with a steady opening half, Gary stacked them up and had his drive happy and relaxed in front.

Turning for home, the only danger to Circle Line looked to be on his back, but rating the veteran to perfection, Gary had 4.2 metres to spare on the line in victory over the Amanda Payne-driven Miss Pau.

The win was the 31^st career victory for Circle Line and the fifth this season for the evergreen pacer, while for Gary, his first win in 1,626 days took his career tally to 1,303 driving wins.

There is something rather fitting that Gary’s first win since returning to race driving should come on Father’s Day.

THE BAD

It was a mixed night for Queensland trainers competing at Menangle on Saturday night at the most heavily promoted harness meeting in many years, highlighted by the inaugural running of The Eureka.

It was a two-pronged Queensland attack on the race with the Racing Queensland slot holder Speak The Truth joined by the race favourite Leap To Fame in contesting the marquee event.

Unfortunately, it was not to be on the night for either runner, with Leap To Fame finishing second behind Encipher and Speak The Truth finishing 15.9 metres from the winner in fifth position.

The run of Leap To Fame in defeat was enormous, sitting parked for much of the event, he hit the front in the long Menangle straight and was in for the fight, only tiring in the closing stages with an official winning margin of 1.7 metres.

Speak The Truth settled near the rear when the field sorted positions and tried to make ground through the last 400 metres of the race, grabbing fifth place, running his own last 800 metres in 53.78 seconds.

Finishing second still provided connections of Leap To Fame with the biggest cheque of his career and catapulted the Grant Dixon-trained entire past $1 million in career earnings.

Earlier in the night, the Darren Weeks-trained Soap Opera had looked set to be a major player in the New South Wales Breeders Challenge Blue Final for two-year-old fillies.

However, an issue earlier in the week led to her scratching and she was unable to line up in the $100,000 feature.

In the Len Smith Mile, the Jack Butler-trained and Nathan Dawson-driven Hot And Treacherous finished ninth as Rock N Roll Doo claimed a narrow victory over Spirit Of St Louis.

Despite finishing out of the money, Hot And Treacherous produced some sizzling sectionals, running the fastest last 800 and 400 splits of the race with a 53.72 second and 25.87 second close out.

It was not all lost on the night however, with the Shannon Price-trained and Adam Sanderson-driven Sure Thing Captain claiming Group 2 success in The Stockade - the consolation of The Eureka.

Despite some anxious moments in the home stretch when looking for gaps, Sanderson found the space and Sure Thing Captain darted through to claim his seventh career victory.

Dangerzone finished second, with the former Jack Butler-trained gelding part-owned by Tara Butler, while Tims A Trooper had to settle for fifth placing.

THE MILESTONE

Nathan Dawson has added another pair of milestones to his driving resume as his lead in the Queensland driver’s premiership reached 111 wins by the end of the week.

Driving Arts Peregrine to victory on Friday night at 'The Creek' for brother Mitchell, Dawson moved to 267 wins for the season.

With the previous two highest winners in a season held by Pete McMullen with his 2021 record of 315 followed by his 2022 premiership winning total of 266, Dawson moves into second place for the highest number of season winners ever recorded in Queensland, with four months remaining of the 2023 term.

Earlier in the week at Albion Park when driving Dark Terror to third placing, Dawson also reached another small milestone, becoming just the second Queensland driver to surpass $2 million in stake earnings in a season.

Another record held by Pete McMullen from his monster 2021 season, Dawson now sits $75,000 shy of breaking that record.

Aiming to maintain one win a day, Dawson was able to achieve that once again in the past week despite Wednesday night at Redcliffe being abandoned after one race and heading to Menangle on Saturday night to partner Hot And Treacherous in the Len Smith Mile at Menangle.

With doubles on Monday and Tuesday, he was able to pick up a winner at each of the next three meetings for the week.

THE WILDCARD

With her concession claim in demand, the past week proved successful for driver Alanah Richardson, driving four winners on four separate days at Albion Park.

The first winner came at Albion Park on Tuesday aboard the Ian Gurney-trained Lanai, the four-year-old claiming a tough victory when sitting parked and defeating the race favourite Hold Onto Ya Bling.

At Thursday’s meeting at 'The Creek', Richardson partnered with the Jurgen Strohschon-trained Zed Express to end a winning drought for the nine-year-old gelding.

With his last victory recorded in October 2021, Richardson was able to get the best form the gelding over the closing stages after finding the fence early, before taking cover.

On Friday, visiting Victorian trainer Colin Godden booked Richardson for his four-year-old Art On Fire, with the concession claim seeing the gelding draw favourably in gate two.

With the speed to be first to the inside, Rock Nien then raced forward and provide the trail to Art On Fire, with a genuine tempo ensuing.

Angling to the outside as they swung for home, Art On Fire responded to Alanah’s urgings, chasing the leader down and pulling clear to score his third career victory.

Claiming her fourth winner for the week and the fourth with her claim being utilised, Richardson guided the John Boserio-trained Holy Camp Dillon to victory in Saturday night’s opening race.

Angling the gelding back to the inside, Holy Camp Dillon sprinted sharply along the passing lane to grab the win.

That moved Richardson to 17 wins for the term, surpassing her previous best season of 15 wins as she sits on a 17 per cent winning strike rate.

THIS WEEK

Six race meetings will be held this coming week, with 'The Creek' to host three of those, starting on Tuesday with a nine-race card.

Friday will once again be a night meeting before the metropolitan fixture on Saturday where extended stakes will be on offer for the mare’s qualifier and the band five event.

Redcliffe will host meetings on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon.

Following track resurfacing works conducted since last Wednesday, Redcliffe will host the transferred Show Finals which have been rescheduled after last week’s meeting was cut short after just one race.

The week culminates on the grass at Kilcoy with a standalone fixture programmed.

With a maiden pace of $6,260 and QBRED bonus available, all other races will be at $4,060 with QBRED cash bonus on offer to eligible winners.