Jordan on top in Team Teal race

By Jordan Gerrans

Jordan Topping says winning the annual Team Teal Cup on Wednesday evening at Redcliffe felt like claiming a Group race, such is the event’s significance for female drivers in the Sunshine State.

The annual Team Teal Drivers Invitation race brings together the leading female drivers from across the state to celebrate the campaign.

The Team Teal campaign raises funds for ovarian and gynaecological cancer research through February and March.

Held under the new lights at ‘the Triangle’, Topping was partnered with Misstrepo from the Graham Dwyer barn in the 2040 metre contest.

Topping has been a Team Teal ambassador in previous years with the 22-year-old reinswoman acutely aware of the importance of the campaign.

As the up-and-coming driver is yet to win a Group-level race in her time in the sport, she said the 2025 Team Teal race felt just as special.

“It was pretty good to win the race as I have driven in it a few times over the years and never had much luck,” Topping said.

“To actually finally win it, it was a bit of a thrill.

“It was kind of like winning a Group race for me. All the girls get behind it every year, we like doing it.

“It is always good to get a winner in the teal pants but to win the invitation race was pretty cool.”

The Team Teal Drivers Invitation race has a perpetual trophy and is always contested by the lady drivers while they don their teal pants.

The annual campaign raises funds for ovarian and gynaecological cancer research with the Queensland harness racing industry donating $200 on every occasion a reinswoman drives a winner in the Sunshine State.

Dwyer’s eight-year-old mare entered Wednesday’s contest in good form around the Peninsula-based track, winning there at her last start and placing at her run prior to that.

Misstrepo commenced from the second row with Topping taking the drive aboard the mare for the first time in her career.

Topping got moving with about 500 metres to travel and noted post-race that the speed in the early stages of the event played into her advantage.

“I was fairly confident going into the race going off the mare’s last run,” she said.

“She had a good trip and sat one-one.

“Graham told me that she can have a bit of a flat spot over the back but she did not really seem to show it on Wednesday night.

“When she saw open air, she got going. She pulled away going to the line so I was really happy with her.”

The Redcliffe Harness Racing Club is shining brighter than ever following the installation of new broadcast lighting.

Funded through the Racing Infrastructure Fund, the $6 million project saw the delivery of new LED lighting and electrical infrastructure to showcase a better broadcast quality product for night racing.

The race before the annual Team Teal Cup on the Wednesday program from Redcliffe celebrated the lights project being completed.

As a regular driver at the facility, Topping says the new lights are excellent.

“It is definitely a lot brighter out there,” she said.

“It is lit up like a Christmas tree out there now.

“It is quite good for us drivers. You can tell the difference compared to the old days; it is 10 times clearer for us out there.”

The race to celebrate the new lights was also won by the Dwyer stable with Graham’s son Layne driving Cote Dazur to victory.

After driving in races since the 2019-20 campaign, Topping has recently turned her hand to training pacers, as well.

She has started a handful of individual runners in races and has picked up two victories with gelding Geldof so far.

“I am enjoying the training side,” she said.

“It is a bit of an eye-opener working them all myself and working out their problems, trying to get them in the best possible spot to race consistently.

“It has been good to get a couple of winners.”

The Team Teal campaign was created by Duncan McPherson OAM, who lost his wife Lyn to ovarian cancer in 2010.

McPherson co-founded the campaign with fellow harness owners and trainers Michael Taranto and Jim Connelly as a way to associate their passion of racing with the cause to fund clinical research nurses.

Click here for more information on the 2025 Team Teal campaign.