Fr Brian Glasheen is a friend and mentor to vast numbers in and beyond trotting and is a wonderful ambassador for the sport, being genuinely interested in the people involved in harness racing.
He has been involved in harness racing for most of his life as a breeder, owner, amateur driver, strapper, punter and pastor.
He has advanced the profile of trotting in the local and wider community, attracting media attention when blessing horses and their colours and by conducting harness racing and Inter Dominion masses. He has attended at least 45 Inter Dominion carnivals of the 80 run to date.
He acquired the title 'The Pacing Priest' when in 1978 a journalist wrote an article in The Sporting Globe to help to promote the first harness racing mass in Australia.
Parish Priest at Bacchus Marsh for 36 years, he has bred from a long line of pacers, racing many successfully. He is a part-owner in the 2021 Inter Dominion Pacing Championship finalist Triple Eight.
Fr Brian grew up in Preston, where his father Jack Glasheen trained trotters as a hobby. They won many races at the Melbourne Showgrounds with Major Miracle. Father Glasheen also drove a winner, the trotter San Adios, at Healesville in 1963.
He graduated from high school and commenced an engineering job with a road contracting group working on the 1956 Olympic Village in Heidelberg. He studied Civil Engineering part-time and helped form a new company.
However, he was called to the priesthood. He trained for eight years at Corpus Christie in Werribee, and in 1964 and was ordained in Ballarat.
The Glasheen family has a harness racing history of more than 100 years, with Fr Brian’s grandfather, Paddy Glasheen, a leading reinsman in Victoria, training and driving the Hall of Fame trotter Grand Voyage to 43 wins.
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