It is both encouraging and exciting that on Queensland’s biggest night many of our younger participants featured on the main stage.
While we have a deep pool of talented reinsmen and women, you don’t have to look far to find trainers producing horses on the big nights.
The recent success of 29-year-old conditioner Jason Grimson has been well documented after he has featured prominently in plenty of the major events, and on Saturday night he teamed up with 23-year-old driver Cam Hart to take out the Grand Circuit feature, the Blacks A Fake.
Hart has already established himself as one of the most talented pilots in the country with nerves of steel when it counts.
Throughout the entire Albion Park card, we saw younger stars shine. This included 28-year-old Mark Pitt, who notched up another Group 1 win in the Queensland Oaks to make it a double on the night for the powerful Emma Stewart stable and his 106th winner for the season.
Race five saw 22-year-old Kiwi native Luke Whittaker make his 50th lifetime winner a Group 1 success when he teamed up with the Shannon Price-trained trotter Wee Man Trouble.
Jack Callaghan, at only 20 years of age, is one of the most confident and talented drivers we have in the country and already secures bookings in many of the feature races.
All in all, of the 11 winning drivers on Saturday night at The Creek (including the dead heat), nine were aged under 35 years of age.
Whilst it may be the opinion of many that a high percentage of harness racing punters and spectators are of an older generation, the evidence on one of our biggest nights suggests that plenty of the stars of our game are young, talented, enthusiastic and hopefully willing to carry the sport on their shoulders for years to come.
Photo: Dan Costello
The opinions expressed in The Forum are those of the author and may not be attributed to or represent policies of Harness Racing Victoria, which is the state authority and owner of thetrots.com.au.