Planning underway for exhibition races at Ipswich Show

Planning underway for exhibition racing at the Ipswich Show. Offer your assistance.

Picture: AAP Image/David Clark

TROT TACTICS

Denis Smith

WE must practise the distant early warning technique to raise awareness of coming events. Now that the COVID threat seems to be shrinking to manageable proportions we should turn our thoughts to the traditional show season and the need to present trotting/harness racing in one form or another - actual racing or exhibitions - at these traditional, annual fairs.

In the not too distant past, trotting was the excitement factor at these gatherings, which were very heavily supported by exhibits of local farm produce and high class farm animals, all of which were presented with the same level of showroom shine as a new car.

Experienced judges for each category handed out trophies, ribbons and bragging rights to local exhibitors.

Town dwellers and, importantly, their sheltered offspring came to realise that the rumour mill was right for once.

More than half of the endless varieties of milk in the supermarket cabinet were produced by cows and, by and large, the remainder had their genesis in paddocks of soy beans and orchards of almond trees.

The local Ag show has the potential to fill a huge gap in the neglected education of young "townies", and, as such, is not getting the level of support it deserves from State and Federal Governments.

It therefore falls to the show societies and the exhibitors to practise a bit of self help.

That is where the harness racing fraternity in the greater Ipswich footprint can assist, by supporting show racing in our area.

At this point in time, this will be by exhibition racing at Ipswich Show, due to constraints imposed by the size of the greyhound track and the all important safety factors involved.

The bones of this enterprise will be thrashed out at a meeting of concerned parties at Ipswich Showground on Monday.

For the Ipswich exercise, we will ideally need to provide a pool of 16 horses for each day of racing.

All racing will be from standing starts and appearance money will be paid (sum yet to be determined).

For the harness owners trainers and drivers, this program presents a golden opportunity to advertise our sport/industry to potential followers.

Harness racing/trotting is a brilliant spectacle, day or night, and the opportunity offered by the Ipswich Show Society is too good to be missed.

Ring me on 0408 352 478 after Tuesday.

Act now with Olympic boost

IT is to be noted that the greater Ipswich footprint is now the area of choice for relocating harness trainers.

In particular, larger stables are heading this way.

With the announcements concerning the Olympic Games to be held in Brisbane/Queensland in 2032, now is the time to form a lobby group and target support of local parliamentarians for harness to be part of the Yamanto greyhound site.

With excellent highway access and the horses on the doorstep, a reproduction of the Parklands Dual Code complex at Yamanto equals a 100 year asset.

It is of no use to talk among ourselves and declare the foregoing to be a "no-brainer".

Go on the attack now and remember that a large part of a Member of Parliament's duty is to listen to his electorate and present their wishes to the Government.

There are two Ys here, and If we don't get the right Y, we will get Yatala instead.

Think now and act.

Human sports fitness techniques

HISTORY seems to indicate that a grounding in elite sport is almost as good as an equine family upbringing when looking at a CV suitable for entry into the light harness sport.

This week's success story concerns Lower Mt Walker based duo Steve Towns and Maxine Ellison.

Towns was a cricketing all-rounder who made it to Sheffield Shield level in Tasmania.

When he first appeared on the scene at Marburg, it was obvious that he had very strong opinions as to what constituted a suitable training regime for the racing standardbred.

It seemed to the casual onlooker that he was applying aspects of human sports fitness techniques to the horses.

Maxine, having come from a successful harness family, was applying polish and presentation. Time passes and it becomes evident that the Towns-Ellison approach is not only very successful but they do not keep horses overlong.

They pass them on while they still have races in them.

There was bit of joy this week when the home-bred mare Little Dee got the biscuits at Redcliffe on Wednesday night, picking up a nice $7,500 Q-Bred second win bonus.

Served up by Steve and Maxine at her top, and a thinking drive by Nathan Dawson, saw the 5yo daughter of Mister Feelgood and Madame Camelot add a significant lump of cash to the bankroll.

The first week of March 2021 was a good one.

Honour board

SPECTACULAR results this week on both sides of the board.

Driver honours were close between Dani Veivers (seven wins) and Pete McMullen, who scored on six occasions.

On the trainer's side, an incredible debut by Ryan Veivers. Hardly time for the dust to settle on the new place and posting eight winners for the week. Ipswich factor: 32/53.

Albion Park, February 26: Orlando Jolt (Adam Sanderson for Darrell Graham); RocknRoll Classic (Dani Veivers for Ryan Veivers); Sling shot (Lachie Manzelmann for Ron Sallis); Blue Ivy (Dani Veivers for Ryan Veivers).

Albion Park, February 27: Ideal World (Narissa McMullen); Secret Agent Tycoon (Dani Veivers for Ryan Veivers); Maywyns Courage (Kelli Dawson); Dance In The Sun (Pete McMullen for Chantal Turpin).

Marburg, February 28: Crazy Ben (Matt Elkins for Dan Russell); Elle Jay (Pete McMullen for Peter Greig); Donny Jones (Narissa McMullen for Ron Wells); Gosling In Flight (Taleah McMullen); High On Montana (Lachie Manzelmann for Lacey Hinze); Ima Birubi Boy (Nikki Chalk for Ryan Veivers); Miss Mia (Pete McMullen for Peter Greig).

Albion Park, March 2: Groovy Miss Annie (Angus Garrard for Peter Greig); Talent To Spare (Trent Dawson); Casino Tommy (Pete McMullen for Jack Butler); Hello Its Me (Paul Diebert for Melissa Gillies); Chantray (Dani Veivers for Ryan Veivers).

Redcliffe, March 3: Life In Heaven (Trent Moffat for Doug Lee); Doctor Feelgood (Matt Elkins for Vic Frost); Love Your Work (Trent Dawson); Little Dee (Nathan Dawson for Steve Towns).

Redcliffe, March 4: Wannago (Pete McMullen for Jason Carkeet); Ima Birubi Boy (Dani Veivers for Ryan Veivers); Artistic Saint (Dani Veivers for Ryan Veivers); Miss Mia (Pete McMullen for Peter Greig); Toanui Spirit (Trent Dawson); Arthur Lowe (Lachie Manzelmann for Ron Sallis); Theres A Chance (Taleah McMullen for Graham White).

Handy tips

SELECTIONS for Albion Park on Saturday night.

R1: Box trifecta 1-8-9: Chevrons Reward (N Dawson)-Lilac Flash (K Rasmussen)-Clinal Do (D March).

R2: Box trifecta 1-8-3: Royal Aurora (B Barnes)-Miss Ruby Sunshine (P McMullen)-Power Surge (G Dixon).

R3: box trifecta 1-3-8: Larry Lincoln (H Barnes)-Maywyns Courage (K Dawson)-Majordoit (T Gillespie)..

R4: Box trifecta 3-7-13: Unknown Son (P McMullen)-Van Sank (A Sanderson)-Orlando Jolt (D Graham).

R5: Quinella 2-9: Our Ultimate Hanna (N McMullen) and Cool And Calculating (K Rasmussen).

R6: Box trifecta 1-4-8: Montana Chier (D Graham)-Bohannan (T McMullen)-One Off (G Dixon).

R7: Quinella 1-3: Slingshot (N McMullen) and Better Than Ideal (K Rasmussen)..

R8: Box trifecta 1-3-8: Blues Terror (A Garrard)-RocknRoll Classic (D Veivers)-Kensington Bill (M Elkins).

R9: Box trifecta 5-10-11 : Red Castleton (T McMullen)-Garland Greene (N McMullen)-Majestic Simon (P McMullen).

R10: Box trifecta 6-7-8: Quick Step (D Graham)-Golden Sand (L Paton)-Gosling In Flight (T McMullen).

Originally published as Planning underway for exhibition races at Ipswich Show