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Harness racing is full of great partnerships, some are famous for big wins while others might not get the headlines but can still mean just as much.
One such partnership was formed back in the mid 1980s when Bob Egan and the late Gavin Lang joined forces.
Egan, a publican in the main and part-time harness trainer, prepared a horse or two throughout his career with a few handy winners.
Egan and Lang combined for their first success at Bendigo in July 1986 with the aptly named ‘Surround A Star’. The partnership continued its fruitful success when Egan’s mare Darcy Dior won at Moonee Valley in September 2000.
Egan told Jason Bonnington and Toby McKinnon on TrotsLife this week about the win.
“I had a pub in Ballarat at the time and I took her to Moonee Valley to try and get an M0 with her and she was in the last race,” he said. “She won in true Gavin style by a short half-head.
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“When I was in the pub game I didn’t have time in the end to train horses so I gave that away. Gavin would go to the sales and I’d just ring him up and say how did you go? And he’d say ‘I bought a colt and I bought a filly are you interested’, and I’d say ‘yeah, put me in’.”
The last of those horses was Sirletic, who when trained by Lang won seven of his 12 starts before having to be transferred.
“Gavin absolutely loved this horse. He was terribly sick in hospital as we all know,” Egan said. “He decided that we would give the horse to (David) Aiken to train.”
The gelding has continued to flourish for Aiken and will look to add to his 22 wins in Saturday night’s HERO Claiming Pace at Tabcorp Park Melton, which will be streamed live and free as part of the coverage on www.TrotsVision.com.au.
CLICK BELOW TO HEAR BOB EGAN ON SEN TRACK’S TROTSLIFE:
