Former champion Victorian reinsman Daryl “Dasher” Douglas reminded the harness racing world of his class at Bendigo on Wednesday night (Oct 1), recording his first win in more than two years.
Douglas guided three-year-old filly Emjay Jazz to victory in the Gold Central Victorian Pace for his sister-in-law Julie Douglas, showing the same precision and judgement that have defined his career.
The success came at only his third drive since December 2023, the month in which he recorded his previous win at Stawell with trotter Abitofadreamer for Kim Proctor.
That year (2023) Douglas had 348 drives for 25 wins and 75 placings. He didn’t drive during 2024 and made his return last weekend at Melton on September 27 (for a fourth on Starzinhereyes). Douglas had just one drive at Bendigo for the win.
Douglas’s record, largely established during his high-flying run in the early 2000s, remains among the best in Australian harness racing: 4694 winners and more than $29 million in stakes.
A six-time national premiership winner, he has collected 138 Group 1 victories, including Inter Dominion triumphs with Golden Reign and Lennytheshark.
The fourth of the late Keith and Judy Douglas’s six children, Douglas began driving horses as a 12-year-old. He was 18 when he applied for his harness racing driver licence, and his first winner came aboard Badland at St Arnaud in 1991 for trainer Brian Owens.
His natural talent was matched by a relentless work ethic, travelling statewide and nationally for more than two decades.
While he was a capable driver in his early days, Douglas has often acknowledged that a series of suspensions and injuries to Victoria’s leading drivers in 1998 provided what was, for him, a career-defining break.
“There was hardly anyone left so I started to pick up a lot of extra drives!” Douglas has said.
He never looked back, smashing the century mark that season for the first time – and then repeating it every year for the next 16 seasons, more often than not, double and triple centuries.
Burnout saw Douglas step away from the sport for five years from 2015 before returning part-time in 2020. While he now describes himself as a hobbyist, his Bendigo drive was a reminder that his horsemanship and instinct remain as sharp as ever.
For Julie Douglas’s stable, it was another winner (one of two for the night); for “Dasher”, he recaptured the “buzz” he’s always got from driving.
And for Victorian harness racing fans, it was a reminder of why he remains one of the most respected reinsmen in the sport.
Photo: Daryl Douglas and Emjay Jazz after their Bendigo win (Claire Weston photograph)
