An absolute certainty: Hilly’s lonely trot to victory in Leeton harness walk-over

Harness racing driver Jared Kahlefeldt and his 11-year-old gelding Hilly were left in a race of their own at Leeton on Friday.

Harness Racing NSW stewards were informed on Thursday by Victorian trainer Robert Walters and the controversial Tasmanian trainer Ben Yole that their eight runners in the first race – the TAB Venue Mode Pace – wouldn’t make the trip to Leeton.

Yole had six starters in the race, and Walters, whose stable is the base for Yole’s runners when they come to the mainland, had two runners. They were all scratched, leaving Hilly, which is trained by Jared’s father, Paul, to trot the 2½ laps of the 2147m race alone in what is known as a walkover.

All Hilly had to do was complete the course, which he did in the respectable mile rate of two minutes and 3.3 seconds. It was his 16th win at his 207th start and took his winnings to $128,000.

“The old fella gave me my first winner, which was special, but this was unique,” Kahlefeldt said. “You don’t even get on the track on your own when you are doing trackwork, so it was a bit different out there.

“He has been such a good horse to us, this old fella, and I have wanted to get another win on him before he retires but never thought it would be in this manner.”

Yole was at the centre of the bombshell Murrihy Report into harness racing in Tasmania which was released on Wednesday. The report, which was compiled by former Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy, detailed allegations of race-fixing, regulatory failures and animal welfare issues.

Hilly is in a world his own as he takes a walkover victory at Leeton on Friday.

“When the report came out earlier in the week, which was devastating for the industry, we started to think the race wouldn’t get run, but it did with only us in it,” Kahlefeldt said.

NSW stewards didn’t have to make a decision on whether to let the horses start.

“They [Walters and Yole] told us that the horses couldn’t make the trip to Leeton,” deputy chief steward Chris Paul said.

“It means the race was a walkover and the winner will receive half the first-placed prizemoney under the rules as long as he completed the course.”

The first-place prize was $5184, so Hilly earned $2592 for his day out. The remaining prizemoney was not distributed.

There were no winners off the course. The race had attracted some unusual interest from savvy punters who had suspected that it might indeed become a one-horse affair, but the race was abandoned as a betting medium and all wagers were refunded.

Meanwhile, chaos was expected at Tasmanian harness meetings as the fallout from the Murrihy report continues.

Yole, who often has multiple runners in races and sometimes the entire field, was banned by Tasracing from all racecourses on the weekend, and all of his runners were scratched from Launceston on Friday, resulting in two more walkovers.

Tasracing chief executive Andrew Jenkins announced on Friday that Yole and others named in the report had been given show-cause notices as to why they should not be warned off.

“Tasracing is satisfied it has the grounds on which to make this decision under the Racing Regulation Act 2004, based on the serious allegations and subsequent findings made by Mr Murrihy and detailed in his report into the handling of matters by the Office of Racing Integrity,” Jenkins said.

“The named participants have a show cause period to provide evidence why the notice should be rescinded.”

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