Weasel ends a long run of outs with a victory on the Gympie sand track Photo by Anthony Essex
Gympie Turf Club is ready to back harness racing again after the trots proved to be a hit with fans at Saturday’s Zinc 96 FM Family race day at South Side on Saturday.
For the first time in many years Gympie punters were treated to harness racing with the Club conducting three pacing races following the annual thoroughbred card and Club President Spencer Slatter said plans are already afoot for the Club to get sponsorship funds for a full harness race card at the Club’s Melbourne Cup Day meeting.
“Having the trots on our family race day was definitely an added bonus and we are hoping to organize funding to have our first stand-alone harness race day at Gympie on Melbourne Cup day,” Slatter said. “Due to the huge volume of thoroughbred racing, the shortage of jockeys etc. on Melbourne Cup day, in recent years we’ve resorted to a bit of a novelty with camel races but harness racing is looking like a good option to that. “The Club will need to look at the benefits of assisting with the funding of the prizemoney and hopefully we will be in a position to make a decision shortly.”
Slatter said there was a real party atmosphere at South Side and everyone enjoyed the addition of the trots.
“The drivers seemed to enjoy it too,” Slatter said. “We didn’t have to do a lot to the sand after the gallops, it all worked out pretty well for everyone>”
Art Major filly Somethings Sizzling broke her duck, closing the race day with a 12 metre victory over race favourite Wheres Sarah Now. Driven by trainer Mick Logan, Somethings Sizzling led from start to finish. The filly raced by the Brisbane Pastoral Company is a granddaughter of Pelagic Miss who produced Time Square, a 1.53.4 winner in North America and a prolific winner in Western Australia.
Eight-year-old Mach Three gelding Weasel scored its first win in 17 months carving out the quickest time of the day on the Gympie sand. Weasel is approaching $100,000 in life time stakes but these days his wins are few and far between. Trained and driven by John Kerr, Weasel was the $15.00 rank outsider in the six horse field but seemed to relish the alternate surface and held a 4.3 metre winning break on Red Castle Warrior (Kevin Annetts) with a big space back to the rest of the field. Hez To Blame, trained and driven by Noel Parrish also ended a losing streak with a 16 metre win over the race favourite Cloncullen (Jamie Donovan). Hez To Blame, a Western Edition gelding which had been winless from its previous 16 starts scored in the slowest time of the three races run.
