Bill Johnson
Inter Dominion Event Committee chairman Ray Sharman today announced that Western Australian trainer Bill Johnson has been recognised nationally with the awarding of the “Brian Hancock” Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding contribution to the Inter Dominion championship in its formative years.
Mr Johnson’s achievements with respect of the Inter Dominion only came to light in 2007 as part of the research into candidates being considered for induction into the RWWA Racing Industry Hall Of Fame in 2007 for which Mr Johnson was a finalist.
Mr Johnson, a Gallipoli veteran who died in April 1981 at the age of 90, was the leading trainer in Perth in 1951, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1963 had an almost fanatical desire to win an Inter Dominion and travelled the length and breadth of the Dominion chasing his dream.
Bill Johnson established an Inter Dominion record that has only ever been approached in later years by the legendary Brian Hancock in terms of consistently supporting the Championship by taking horses across the length and breadth of the Dominion chasing the elusive big prize.
Commencing with Perth in 1957, Bill Johnson started horses at seven consecutive Inter Dominion Championships including Adelaide in 1958, Melbourne 1959, Sydney 1960, Christchurch 1961, Perth 1962 and Adelaide 1963.
This record of Inter Dominion attendance came at a time when Mr Johnson was Western Australia’s leading trainer with a team of some 40 horses in work.
Horses trained by Bill Johnson (and driven variously by his sons Max and Bob) won four Inter Dominion heats and four Inter Dominion Consolations over the seven series.
Kiwi Dillon won heats of the 1958 Adelaide Inter Dominion and 1960 Inter Dominion, Sultana a heat in Adelaide in 1958 and Kodak won a heat of the 1959 Melbourne Inter Dominion.
Sultana and Calendar gave Mr Johnson a rare double when they won both Consolations of the 1958 Adelaide Inter Dominion. Mr Johnson also had success in a Consolation in Melbourne in 1959 with Kiwi Dillon, which he drove himself, and with Interview in a Consolation of the 1962 Perth series.
His stable star Kiwi Dillon qualified for four Inter Dominion finals (1958,1960, 1962 and 1963) and may well have equalled the five finals record of Caduceus had he handled the travel to Christchurch in 1961.
Mr Johnson had a fifth finalist when Kodak qualified for the Melbourne final in 1959.
The achievement Kiwi Dillon in qualifying for four Inter Dominion finals is all the more remarkable when taking account of the methods available in the late fifties for getting horses from Perth to the Eastern States.
Mr Johnson used at various times ships, trains and trucks to get across the Nullabor at a time when air transport didn’t exist for horses.
Accordingly he suffered the dramas of truck breakdowns, broken suspensions after hitting massive potholes and the extreme heat and dust of the Nullabor Plain at the height of the Australian summer.
The terrible conditions which confronted Western Australian trainers attending Inter Dominions were highlighted by the death of WA pacer Westgrove Boy from the effects of heat and dehydration whilst returning to Western Australia by train from the 1963 Adelaide Inter Dominion.
The only other Western Australian trainer to qualify a single horse for four Inter Dominion finals is Bill Horn with Village Kid (1985, 1986, 1988, 1989) and the only other Western Australian owned horse to qualify for four Inter Dominion finals was Pure Steel (1976, 1977, 1980, 1981).
Mr Johnson practically singlehandedly gave the Inter Dominion its profile in Western Australia as the premier event nationally for harness racing with his almost obsessive desire to win the race.
With five finalists in seven years he very nearly realised his dream with only a combination of champion opposition and a lack of good luck preventing the ultimate success.
