A great harness racing family is mourning the passing of Josie Justice, who’s being remembered as a gifted horsewoman, loving mum and a trailblazer of the trots.

Josie passed yesterday on her 91st birthday after a battle with cancer, closing a chapter on a life of devotion to the sport and her family, who are poised to carry on her legacy for generations.

Her sons Lance and John were perennial premiership and big race winners, success that Josie not only revelled in but helped establish and formulate.

“She’s done it so tough,” Lance said, “but was proud of the fact that she created a family and created history, that we’d done something and she’d done something.”

“Mum was the backbone,” John said. “When I was Australian trainer of the year three years in a row, she did a lot of work, harnessing, she was fantastic.”

Born in Queenstown, Tasmania, into a harness racing family, Josie met Dudley Justice while he was training in Melbourne in the mid-1950s.

Dudley, a South Australian, had relocated to Melbourne to race Illawarra Wrack, who would win seven times at the Showgrounds in addition to 11 Wayville wins.

They would marry and welcome children Lance and John before moving to a South Australian farm near what’s now the home of Globe Derby, adding daughters Joanna and Jodie to their family.

“They parted ways when I was 12,” Lance said. “She had to keep us kids together and always had a couple of horses. She wanted to share her love between the horses and family and did a really good job of that. She was a very caring and super lady.”

She was also a trailblazer on the track, having with her sister, Margaret, worked for the great Pearl Kelly, and then proceeded to advocate for female involvement in the sport.

“They were pioneers, driving trackwork at the Showgrounds when women weren’t allowed too,” Lance said. “They were rebels. They were so respected.”

“I think she got reprimanded by the stewards,” John said. “Dad had said to her just sit in the sulky and answer gruffly to anyone. I think she almost got away with it until her hat blew off and all that curly hair fell out.”

She would help start South Australia’s reinswomen’s association and win its first premierships.

And then later, while helping Lance and John flourish in their own training and driving careers, she would also enjoy more than a few moments in the spotlight.

Her greatest training successes came in the three seasons from 1985-86, when she would have more than 100 starters each season and a total of 44 wins, including the mare Bravado Pride, a 22-time winner.

“She took (Bravado Pride) to the country and raced really well and had a lot of success,” John said.

“She was a sensational horsewoman,” Lance said. “She knew how to control the horses, when they were right, where to put them.”

John and Lance had been dominant in South Australia when the former moved to Victoria’s greener pastures in 1994, as had sister Joanna. Lance would then follow in 2000 and in late 2002 Josie and Jodie would also head east.

Josie was in the thick of it as her sons produced life-changing success, with John shining with the likes of Shakamaker and Safe And Sound, and Lance with the likes of Smoken Up and Sokyola.

“She changed the history of harness racing by being the mother of us and guiding us in this direction,” Lance said. “She never got the accolades for what she does, but she knew she did so much.”

And she enjoyed the successes, with John recalling her delight when Safe And Sound won the Inter Dominion Consolation in 2001.

“It was about midnight and I said ‘mum, I’ve had enough, I’m going to bed’. She said ‘just drop me off at the pub, the owners are still partying’. She could always out party me.”

She continued to help John at his stable, including earning national attention in September last year when profiled on Channel 9 News for making her training comeback with High In The Sky, who would go on to record a win in January.

“It’s really very special,” Josie told TrotsVision post-race. “It’s just a wonderful thing. To think that I'm 90 and I still love my horses and pacers today as much as I did years ago. Every minute that I've spent with them has been a very wonderful life.”

It was a lasting moment that her family continues to cherish.

“Mum way my greatest inspiration in life,” John said. “Without telling me to do it, she made me get into harness racing.

“She was very tough and never gave up. If there’s one legacy I can pass on to my kids and the next generation I want that to be it. She’s going to be sadly missed.”

“She was always proud of her family and grandchildren and that they’re involved in harness racing and horses,” Lance said. “It made her happy to know that they’ll go on. The last thing I said to her was, mum, you are as tough as old Smoken Up.”