Matt Crone not Defensive at all about top trotter

By Jordan Gerrans

After all the injuries and setbacks Defensive Guy has endured in his career, the lightly-raced square gaiter will always be a favourite of the Crone family.

Now a six-year-old entire, Defensive Guy showed he may be back to near his absolute best on Saturday evening in the opening heats of the annual Jim McNeil Memorial Trotting Championship.

The Matt Crone-prepared and driven trotter took out the second of the two heats by almost four metres while Graham Dwyer’s Itsallandover got the money in the opening heat earlier in the program.

The entire Crone clan had high hopes for Defensive Guy when he was a juvenile, campaigning to Victoria in his three-year-old season – where he qualified for a Group 1, before disaster eventually struck on a few occasions.

Defensive Guy was forced to endure lifesaving colic surgery and once he recovered from that ordeal, he fractured his pelvis at the Crone stables as well as suffering a torn muscle in his shoulder at one stage.

Crone – who races and prepares his team alongside his parents Kay and Gavin – stuck by Defensive Guy throughout it all and they are now proud to see him back near his peak.

He has only been to the races on five occasions since the end of 2021.

The family own and bred the trotter. 

The Jim McNeil heat victory on Saturday was the second win the stallion has recorded so far this campaign.

“We knew he could run as a young horse,” Matt Crone said.

“He missed out on his four and five-year-old campaigns so now he can race as on as a six-year-old.

“We thought very highly of him as a young horse, he just got better and better. We still to this day do not know what he is capable of.”

With regular reinsman Angus Garrard driving Manila Playboy at Menangle on Saturday evening, Matt took the seat in the bike himself after Garrard did the steering in the trotter’s first-up effort.

While Matt describes his talented square gaiter as a ‘headache’ at times, the team is glad they persisted with him.

“He has come back really well,” the trainer and driver said.

“Hopefully we have got him back on track and he will be back bigger and better this time around him. We are hoping that he will get better through his campaign and hopefully take out the Jim McNeil and see where he can go from there.

“He has been the biggest headache I have ever had, this horse but we all know he can move along a bit.”

Matt is keen to race through the Jim McNeil Memorial Trotting Championship with Defensive Guy before potentially turning his eye to a southern trip to Menangle if his form holds up.

It is the Crones' third attempt at running their entire in this series after he was twice cut down by his injuries in the lead-up to the 2022 and 2023 editions.

The second round of the time-honoured series will be run on Friday of this week at Albion Park.

Runners in the series accrue points throughout the heats before the Group 3 Final is run at the same track with $27,186 on the line on the first Saturday of March.

A respected businessman and horse owner, McNeil was a pioneer of trotting races in the Sunshine State, helping lift the horse population around Brisbane as well as increasing the profile of the form of racing.

The Jim McNeil Memorial Trotting Championship has been run since 2011.

Trotters must contest both heats to be eligible for the Final.

Defensive Guy began with a 20 metre handicap on Saturday evening and was able to find his way through the field and to the front with Matt Crone in the sulky before they had completed their first lap around Albion Park.

They were not headed from there as Matt was able to dictate terms in front.

Red-hot race favourite Gus could not overcome his 30 metre handicap with Pete McMullen in the bike and was forced to settle for third.

“The plan was to be as far forward as possible and away from Gus,” Matt said.

“He is the main danger through the series, I think.

“I was happy with him, he is a bit of a bludger in front and waits for another horse to come near him and then will not let them pass. He does it in track work as well, that is his mentality.

"He would not let another horse get near my wheel in the straight on Saturday night.”

The Crones have considered Defensive Guy’s status as a stallion but with his laid-back attitude and nature, they have opted for him to remain as an entire.

The Crone stable has enjoyed a strong last week or so with Ghost Train and Schooby also joining Defensive Guy as race winners.