Six new members and the first ever Legend were inducted into the Victorian Harness Racing Hall of Fame at the 4th annual Hall of Fame Presentation Dinner held at Tabcorp Park Melton last Thursday.
Attended by over 230 guests, the night was promoted by Harness Racing Victoria and the Victorian Harness Racing Media Association as an integral part of the SEW Eurodrive Victoria Cup Carnival.
This year’s honour roll includes three trainer/drivers, two horses and a media personality. It brings the total of Hall of Fame members to 48.
The 2012 inductees are:
Neville Welsh, 74, of Elmore, was twice the leading driver in Victoria, setting a record of 81 winners in 1970/71 and breaking his own record the following season with 84 winners.
Welsh has been associated with many fine performers such as the A. G. Hunter Cup winner Son Of Nancy, Murray Mac, Annastere, Alphalite and the Vicbred champions Fernlea and West Texas Crude.
The reigning Gordon Rothacker medalist, Welsh holds the unique distinction of having driven winners in seven successive decades.
Gus Millsom, who was born in 1874, was recognised as Australasia’s first harness racing star. He won eight metropolitan driving premierships – four in Melbourne and four in Sydney – and later became the first horseman in Australia or New Zealand to win more than 400 races.
Millsom trained many champions including the trotter Lightfoot and the pacer Delavan Chimes and he was the first Australian to train and drive a winner of the NZ Cup winning in 1906 with Belmont M.
He died tragically at just 37 years of age.
Great Western horsewoman Kerryn Manning is the world’s greatest female harness racing driver, landing more than 1,400 ahead of her nearest rivals.
She has won five Australian Driving Premierships and five Melbourne titles and has achieved century seasons 14 times, 200 winners seven times and 300 three times, including a record 371 winners in 2002/03.
Kerryn is the only woman to win a Group 1 race in both hemispheres winning a European Group 1 event with Knight Pistol in Norway at just 21 years of age.
Reichman, a son of Chief Spring, was Australia’s ‘King of the Sprinters’ in the early 1970’s.
Trained throughout his career by Rex Hocking, Reichman hoisted the first ever sub 2:00 racemile in Victoria when he won the 1972Anniversary Cup in 1:58.6 (world record for a 3 furlong track) and set a new Australian mile race record of 1:58.4 winning the Miracle Mile the following year.
He won 52 races and won on 16 different tracks in four States.
Classic Garry, bred by Kevin Newbound, was a top flight racehorse who later became Australia’s leading sire and broodmare sire.
As a four-year-old he won the WA Golden Nugget and became Australia’s first ever 1:55 performer and, following a successful stint in America, was purchased back to Victoria for stud duties.
To date Classic Garry has sired 679 winners of over $24 million and his daughters have left 760 winners of more than $31 million.
Bob Cain, a former Trotting Control Board employee, became one of the sport’s most prolific writers.
He wrote four books and was editor of Harness Racing Weekly and the Harness Racer and his works were recognised with six Coulter Awards and four HRV awards.
The Victorian Harness Racing Media Association’s major award is named in his honour.
Gordon Rothacker, the champion horseman of the Melbourne Showgrounds era, was named the first Legend of the Victorian Hall of Fame. He won a record 14 Melbourne driver’s premierships and the trainer’s title on 10 occasions and was the first reinsman to land 500 winners on Melbourne tracks.
Hall of Fame certificates were presented on the night to long serving HRV employees Barry Delaney and Cathy Shallue-Lowe, breeder-owner and trainer John Yeomans, successful training duo John and Maree Caldow, the Craven Family, owner-breeder and sponsor Kevin Riseley and media personality Alexandra Hurley.
The VHRMA Distinguished Media Award was taken out by former Herald Sun harness racing editor and Sky Channel presenter Adam Hamilton.
Other awards presented on the night were:
J. P. Stratton Award: Rob Merola
HRA Distinguished National Service Award: Gavin Lang
J. D. Watts Award: Chris Alford
Globe Derby Awards: Art Major (sire) and Safely Kept (broodmare sire)
Joseph Coulter Media Awards: Paul Courts (newspaper), Len Baker & Brian Dobson (radio), Gary Wild (photograph) and Bendigo Harness Racing Club & Bendigo Advertiser (promotion)
