The well supported Goggo Gee Gee ended a run of minor placings when he proved too good for his rivals in yesterday’s $12,000 7BU Burnie Cup in front of a large crowd at the Wivenhoe Showgrounds in Burnie.
Backed in from $4.00 to start the $3.70 favourite with Ladbrokes, driver Ben Parker was able to get the gelded son of Bettors Delight away well in the standing start event to find the early lead.
But after coping plenty of pressure from $41.00 chance Northview Dave in the first 400 metres of the event Parker elected to hand up to that pacer before deciding to race outside the leader at the 2100 metre mark before finding the lead with 1300 metres left to travel.
From there the Latrobe based driver drove a confident race before asking the pacer for the full effort at the 200-metre mark and Goggo Gee Gee responded when he pulled away to score by 6.5 metres over Northview Dave with Boss Major 5.5 metres away in third in a mile rate of 2m 4.7s just 0.3s outside the 2789 metre standing start track record.
“He was travelling pretty well on the home corner, so I went for home and hoped for the best,” said winning driver Ben Parker about his biggest win in his 10-year-driving career.
“He tries really hard and he is pretty easy to drive too, he has been around a few times now and he knows what to do,” added Parker about the pacer who is trained at Frankford by Rachel Williams who also owns the gelding in partnership with Lori Jarvis.
“Rachel and Lori have done a good job with their horses, they treat them like they are pets, you see that with Red Shed Robbie who raced at Carrick last Saturday and then he was winning ribbons at the show the next day,” explained Parker.
Their partnership stemmed back from one night at the Devonport trials when Williams needed a driver.
“She needed someone one night to drive one at the trials and she asked if I could drive it and I did and from there we became friends and she has continued to stick by me,” said Parker.
Parker’s interest in harness racing started many years ago with Jim Pearce a former participant in the industry after his role as a starter that he held for many years.
“My great uncle is Jim Pearce who used to be the starter many years ago, and we used to go up to his place and help out with a few horses on school holidays,” said Parker.
He was then bitten by the bug and was able to gain some more experience after striking up a conversation after footy training for the Wesley Vale Kangaroos one night with former VFL player Brett Jaffray.
“One night after footy training I asked Jaffa (Brett Jaffray) if I could go up and learn a bit about the horses and he said I could go up there whenever I wanted, so I started going up there giving him a hand and after 13 years I haven’t left,” laughed the winning driver who is also a volunteer firefighter.
The other feature race on last night’s Burnie card was the $10,000 Somerset Hotel Thorate Incentive which was taken out by short price favourite Brookwillrock ($1.85 fav) for local trainer-driver Craig Hayes.
