Eight-year-old gelding Earl Harbour produced a career best

performance to win the $15,000 Bendigo Bank Bendigo Trotters

Cup (2650m) at Lord's Raceway on the 8th June.

The Peter Manning trained square-gaiter had been beaten in

easier races at recent assignments and Manning said the win

was "a little bit of a surprise." Starting well in the market at

$7.50, Earl Harbour, driven by Kerryn Manning registered its

eighth win for 79 starts and finished strongly to narrowly down

Backas Cobber (Chris Alford) with Tsonga (Nathan Jack) in third

place. The race favourite I See Icy Earl (Greg Sugars) galloped on

the final bend when making its claim for the prize and failed to

beat a runner home. Earl Harbour's winning mile rate was

2:03.7. Earl Harbour now joins an impressive list of Bendigo

Trotters Cup winners which include the Peter Manning trained

champion Knight Pistol (1994), True Roman (1980) Scotch

Notch (1982/83), A Touch Of Flair (2007) and Aleppo Sunrise

(2012). He is also the second son of Earl to win the race, follow-

ing Ella Powell's success in 2009. Three other feature races

were raced at Bendigo.

LEFT: Earl Harbour (Kerryn Manning) wins the

Bendigo Trotters Cup ABOVE: Dennis Bice , Wayne

Tobin and Peter Manning at the presentation

The Bendigo Bank 3yo Trotters Classic was won by

the locally trained The Boss Man. Driven by trainer

Scott Dyer, The Boss Man started the $3.00 race

favourite and was far too good for Invasive (Lance

Justice) and Bellmac Kody (Haydon Gray). The Em-

pire Stallions Vicbred Super Series races produced

two outstanding young winners. Majorlook trained

and driven by Ian Montgomery extended its un-

beaten winning streak to six in the 3yo C&G heat

and Youranut made it five from five for trainer Ross

Sugars and driver Greg Sugars in the 4yo C&G heat.

Bred and raced by Donna Montgomery Majolook is a

son of Art Major and outstanding mare Classic Rain.

Youranut formerly raced in NSW and has now won

six races in succession. The chestnut son of Blissfull

Hall is unbeaten in Victoria.

WINTER 2013 FEEL IT LIVE - Bendigo Harness Racing Magazine

Next time you visit Lord’s Raceway

don’t forget to visit the Library and

Memorabilia Room at the track.

Located under the main grand-

stand next to Garrard’s Horse &

Hound, the Library is building a big

collection of books, photos, racing

silks, vintage race records, trophies

and much more.

The BHRC’s Historian, committee-

man Noel Ridge has taken charge

of the collection and is enthusiasti-

cally managing the project. Each

week something new is donated.

Just recently Mary Sweeney

donated a collection of photos and

trophies won by the great Bendigo

mare Mother Courage.

Anyone is welcome to donate to the

library and historical room.

Noel and BHRC General Manager

David Aldred are also adding new

features to the Bendigo Harness

Racing Club Historical page on the

club’s website.

To view the page simply log onto:

www.bhrc.com.au and follow the

prompts.

Did you know ?

The first official Australian trotting

mile record was achieved at

Epsom near Bendigo on 17-09-

1858

Trotting Match.—A match came off

yesterday afternoon on the Race

Course at Epsom, by Mr.Rankin's

horse Spider.

The match was made in order to

test the speed of the horse, who

accomplished the first mile in four

minutes, and the second in three

minutes and twenty-four sec-

onds—a speed which has not ever

been equalled on Bendigo. The

horse was ridden by Mr. Kettle,

the rider of Rambler.

From John Peck - Editor, Harness

Racing International Magazine,

April 2013

Newsletter Tit le Page 3

A horse named in memory of a little girl with big blue eyes and

pretty ringlets created tears of joy at Bendigo’s Lords Raceway

on Saturday night 25 May 2013.

Four-year-old trotting mare Sophie Gorgeous was named after

Sophie Goss who passed away in her sleep at the age of seven

on June 2, 2009. “Sophie Gorgeous” was there in spirit as her

namesake sprinted from the middle of the field to snatch a sur-

prise victory in race nine at odds of $13. Sophie’s family stood

at the finish line to cheer Sophie Gorgeous home to her first

win. Sophie’s mother Rachel said she was a “special little girl

from day one’’. “We used to say she was gorgeous with her big

blue eyes and ringlets,’’ she said. “She called herself Sophie

Gorgeous.’’ And that was how she would introduce herself to

others. Bendigo horse breeders Denise and Brian Gath heard

about Sophie at the same time one of their mares had a little

filly. “I got to know Rachel when I went to the deli at Coles,’’

Denise said. “Sophie would come up and say: ‘Hello, I’m Sophie

Gorgeous’. She was the cutest little thing.’’ “When Sophie

passed away in her sleep, I told Rachel I was going to name the

filly Sophie. “She asked me if we could call it Sophie Gorgeous.’’

Harness Racing Victoria granted the Gath family special permis-

sion to submit one name instead of the traditional six.

Sophie Gorgeous has started eight times for Ballarat

trainer Brian Kiesey but Saturday night’s win was her

first. “It was an overwhelming sense of emotion – every-

one was in tears,’’ Rachel said. “You could hear the

crowd screaming, and that was us. “We didn’t think she

would go close to winning, then Brian (who was driving)

came home for us. “She just came from the middle and

took off.’’ Bendigo Harness Racing Club general manager

David Aldred said Sophie’s friends and family were ex-

cited by the win. “They let out a big cheer, her mum was

extremely happy,’’ he said. “It’s the type of win you like to

see in racing. There wasn’t a lot of money in it but it

meant everything to a lot of people there. “It was very

emotional – to those people it meant the world.’’ Rachel

said Sophie Gorgeous the horse was beautiful and calm,

just as her daughter was. “It’s nice to say the horse’s

name has meaning behind it and somebody thought of

us when thinking of that,’’ she said. “We’ve never been a

family that had anything to do with horses – it’s a really

warm and fuzzy feeling to know a family we didn’t know

that well would do something like that for us.’’

LEFT: Brian Gath drives Sophie Gorgeous to her maiden win at

Bendigo’s Lord’s Raceway. ABOVE: Sophie Goss who died age 7.

STORY by Nicole Ferrie—Bendigo Advertiser.

He is unbeaten, he is Vicbred and he is a

rising star. Majorlook made it six wins from

six starts with an emphatic victory at Lord’s

Raceway on 8th June in the Empire Stallions

Vicbred heat for 3yo Colts & Geldings. Bred

and raced by Donna and Ian Montgomery,

this son of Art Major and Classic Rain looks

on right out of the box. He is full of spirit and

is living right up to his great pedigree. “Off

the track he is a handful but on the track he

just does everything right,”Donna said.

Majorlook’s dam has had five foals for 4 win-

ners, Promasden, Goldenorro, Madam Altis-

simo and Majorlook. Majorlook could easily

be her best foal with the Vicbred finals still to

come. “We’re excited,” Donna said. Ian Montgomery steers Majorlook to a convincing win at Bendigo

Page 4 WINTER 2013

The Bendigo Harness Racing Committee is embarking on a drive for new Club members

and the Club has a great offer for existing and new members for 2013/14.

Membership fees for the year have been discounted substantially to just $50 and as a

bonus this year the Club will also provide each member with a TROTS CARD. The Trots

Card entitles the Member to complimentary entry to 456 harness race meeting during

2013/14. Do the sums ! That means if you attend each race meeting on the calendar

you will pay just 11 cents per race meeting. On top of the great gate entry offer the BHRC

also provides members with exclusive competition draws, newsletters, invitations to

members only events and priority bookings on feature race nights. Each BHRC member

is also entitled to voting rights at the AGM and General Meetings.

Any small business or

person wishing to become

corporate or private

Sponsorship partner at the

entry level should consider

the Bendigo Harness Rac-

ing Club’s Hot to Trot Of-

fer.

Guaranteed that you won’t

get a better deal than this

anywhere.

For just $200 you get:

A RACE NAME

Your business or personal

name of your choice will

be allocated to an avail-

able TAB race at Lords

Raceway. Race names are

published in the fields in

newspapers and on TAB

charts and on formguides

nationally as well as on

line websites, racing radio

RSN and televised nation-

ally on Sky Racing.

TICKETS

You will receive 6 x compli-

mentary tickets to Lord’s

Raceway so you can bring

your staff, clients, friemds

or family to a night at the

races.

10% DISCOUNT

You will get a 10% dis-

count on our premium

race night dining package.

The dining packages are

just $5 pp and include

track entry, 3 course meal,

a racebook and table ser-

vice to your premium seat-

ing.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Your company or personal

advert will be published in

the racebook on the night

of your race and you will

also have your advert pub-

lished on our website.

WINTER 2013 Page 5

Produced and Edited by DAVID ALDRED - General Manager Bendigo Harness Racing Club Inc.