Daryl (left) and Glenn Douglas in familiar pose
All-conquering Bendigo brothers Glenn and Daryl Douglas farewelled the 2009/10 harness season style last night at Ballarat.
The trainer-driver combination emphatically rounded out their respective premiership-winning seasons when they dominated Victoria’s final meeting of the racing year.
Daryl drove three consecutive winners for his brother – Saint Flash, The Blur and Talk To The Hand – after opening the night with a win aboard the Peter Tonkin-trained Roman Way to finish the season with 322 Australian winners.
That was 76 more than his nearest rival, fellow Victorian Chris Alford, and secured a fourth-straight Australian drivers’ premiership for the 37-year-old.
He also picked up a fifth consecutive Victorian drivers’ premiership for his tally of 310 winners in the Garden State.
While slightly down on the past two seasons, when he drove 388 and 358 winners nationwide, Douglas did become the first driver to put together four-straight 300-win seasons in Australia and the first to partner 250 Victorian winners six years running.
“It probably wasn’t as good a season as the previous couple in terms of winners, but I still drove 300, which is not a bad effort I suppose,” Douglas said. “I was still very happy with the year we had.”
Glenn’s Ballarat hat-trick took his Victorian training tally to 129 for 2009/10 and afforded the 36-year-old a 20-win advantage over Peter Manning in his quest for a third-straight Victorian trainers’ premiership.
The premierships were among the highlights of a season that also saw the Douglas boys combine to win Australia’s premier mares’ race – the Ladyship Mile – and Breeders Crown final with Make Mine Cullen.
Rounding out this season’s statewide premierships was the concession drivers’ title, which saw David Moran – who didn’t drive for the last 10 weeks of the season due to illness – hold on and beat Glen Craven 43 winners to 42.
Vic Top 10 Drivers: 310 – Daryl Douglas; 234 – Chris Alford; 201 – Greg Sugars; 191 – Gavin Lang; 156 – Kerryn Manning; 128 – Nathan Jack; 118 – Damian Wilson; 116 – Brian Gath; 110 – Jodi Quinlan; 104 – Scott Dyer.
Top 10 Vic Trainers: 129 – Glenn Douglas; 109 – Peter Manning; 108 – Kerryn Manning; 105 – Lance Justice; 78 – Tony Peacock; 75 – Peter Tonkin, Chris Lang; 65 – Jayne Davies; 64 – David Aiken; 63 – Geoff Webster.
