Howdy Mate - Photo Courtesy of Stuart McCormick
TWO of the brightest young stars of Aussie harness racing James Herbertson and Cam Hart put on clinics at last night’s two major meetings.
The pair combined for a staggering 11 wins, Hart with six at Menangle and Herbertson with five on Melton’s feature card.
Hart’s stellar night came just a week after he won the world’s richest harness, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka, at Menangle aboard Bay Of Biscay.
It equalled Hart’s set a personal best of six wins at a meeting.
The 26-year-old Hart teamed with his biggest supporter, leading trainer Jason Grimson, for four of his wins last night, headed by the sparkling comeback win of former Miracle Mile contestant Hi Manameisjeff in the free-for-all (race seven).
After 14 months out with injury, the eight-year-old led throughout to win easily. Amazingly, it was his 12th win from just 13 starts at Menangle since switching to Grimson’s care in late 2023.
Hart’s dominance also saw him win all four qualifying heats of the prestigious Carousel series last night, three of them trained by Grimson: Miki Cohen (race two), Our Sweet Delight (three) and Tuapeka Lou (four). The other was the Craig Judd-trained Alta William (race five).
Hart is in fifth spot on the national premiership, but leads the NSW title.
He is preparing to chase more feature races, like the $250,000 Victoria Cup (Melton, October 18) and $NZ1mil NZ Cup (Addington, November 11) on his favourite pacer, great stayer Swayzee.
Herbertson, 25, led the charge with a personal record five wins at a Melton metropolitan meeting, including snaring two of the rich Nutrien Classic trotting finals for close friend, Jess Tubbs, aboard Howdy Mate (2YO colts and geldings) and Tracy The Jet (3YO fillies).
It is just the third time Herbertson has driven five winners or more at a single meeting. His best was six at Yarra Valley on October 21, last year. He also drove five at Cranbourne on October 6, last year.
Last night’s romp extended Herbertson’s already commanding lead in his quest for a second successive Australian Drivers’ Premiership. He won last year by a staggering 93-win margin and leads by almost 40 this year.
Herbertson’s commanding lead is remarkable this year given he spent more than a month on a working holiday in the US and Scandinavia.
There was a strong international connection to his win on the appropriately named Howdy Mate, who is part-owned by top US trainer Nancy Takter and Australasia’s top harness media identity, the NZ-based Brittany Graham.
Herbertson said his wins on Lady Vici (race eight) and Im Bobby (race nine), for hobby trainers Joe Vassallo and Eddie Tappe respectively, meant as much as the Nutrien final wins.
Herbertson has played a pivotal role in the emergence of both stars, with Lady Vici posting her eighth straight win (she’s only raced nine times).
The remarkable Im Bobby showed he would be a force in all the upcoming open-class feature trotting races when he overcame a daunting 30m handicap to post his seventh successive win.
Herbertson and Hart will lock horns in a string of major races in coming weeks, headed by the huge Victoria Cup meeting, which was this week confirmed as being televised live on 7 Horse Racing (7two) following the huge Everest/Caulfield Cup coverage.
