Catch up on the week’s harness racing action in our weekly review, thanks to Darren Clayton.
THE GOOD
It was a good week in the bike for Brendan Barnes as he edges closer to claiming a third successive season of reaching 100 driving wins.
Driving at five meetings for the week, Barnes was able to steer home at least one winner at each, with the Wednesday night fixture at Redcliffe the most successful when landing a treble.
Of the seven winners, six were for the ‘boss’ Jack Butler and the other for Doug Lee, with the pair forming a good winning relationship in recent weeks.
The run started on Tuesday when Going For Gold was able to avenge his last stride defeat the start prior when he was run down by the Narissa McMullen trained Le Tissier.
The win was the fourth career victory for the lightly raced Going For Gold with Barnes having driven the four-year-old at all four wins.
Heading to Redcliffe with a handy book of drives for Wednesday night’s fixture, Brendan converted the on-paper assessment with three wins from his five drives.
Chasing The Wind was the first winner, with the Butler trained gelding sprinting sharply along the passing lane to secure his first win since arriving in Queensland.
Lifeinheaven (below) for trainer Doug Lee was the second leg of the winning treble, with the mare angled to the outside in a well-timed run, sweeping home to victory.
The third and final winner of the night came in race nine when another newcomer to the Butler stable Shes All Star was successful at her second start since arriving in Queensland.
At Thursday’s Redcliffe meeting, Barnes was booked for two drives, landing the prize with the Butler trained Speak With Sam.
The three-year-old gelding is another new arrival to the Logan Village stables of Butler and was successful at his first appearance in the Sunshine State, claiming an effortless six-metre victory when leading all the way.
Come Friday, Barnes had two drives for Butler, Tam Oshanter who looked a good chance in a trotting event and The Rocknroll King later in the program.
Tam Oshanter was sent to the post as an odds-on favourite but had no answer for the Grant Dixon-trained Im The Commando and had to settle for second.
In race seven, the Barnes/Butler combo were able to turn the tables, with The Rocknroll King overturning the Dixon-trained Peppa Bliss that started the short-priced favourite.
Rounding out the week, Barnes partnered with perhaps one of the most progressive and exciting horses in Queensland at present, Deus Ex.
Sent straight to the front from gate three, the son of Changeover put on a power-running clinic for his rivals in claiming a big win.
Running 1.51.4 for the mile, the five-year-old remains undefeated since crossing the Tasman with Barnes taking the reins at each of the geldings three wins.
Currently on 91 wins this season, the 100-win milestone is just around the corner.
THE BAD
Lola Weidemann earned the wrath of stewards and has been handed a six-week suspension relating to her drive aboard Misty Creek on September 16.
Beaten as a long odds-on favourite, stewards charged and then after deliberation and considering submissions delivered a guilty finding under rule 149 (1) to Weidemann.
One silver lining to come out of the hefty suspension was that Julie Weidemann was able to take the reins of Misty Creek at his latest victory at Redcliffe on Thursday September 30.
Owned and bred by Julie, the two-year-old colt has shown his share of ability all season, with his latest victory the third win of his career to date.
Hailing from the same maternal family as the Group 1 winning Misty Plains, Misty Creek is by Betterthancheddar out of a half-siter to Misty Plains.
The Weidemann sisters had great success in the mid-2000s with Misty Plains who would win 15 of his 29 starts before his career was devastatingly cut short.
The long driving suspension handed down to Lola may have been eased ever so slightly with the win of Misty Creek, with Lola also claiming a training quinella in the race.
Hesluvable was able to claim second behind his talented stablemate with Lachie Manzelmann stepping in to take the drive.
Taking the reins for eight runners on the card, Julie Weidemann was able to land the win aboard Misty Creek and place on a further four runners, with all the placed runners starting at big odds.
Julie is approaching 600 official race driving wins but has mostly stayed away from race day driving in recent times, however her efforts on Thursday showed she has lost none of her skill or instinct in the sulky.
THE MILESTONE
The Denis Smith-trained Northern Muscle scored in the last race at Albion Park on Saturday night to extend his record to 26 race wins.
The win took the square gaiter past $150,000 in career earnings to become just the second QBRED trotter to exceed the figure and the first to do it entirely in Queensland.
At one stage locked in a battle for the title of most wins by a QBRED trotter, Tough Monarch has been able to edge away in that contest to take his tally to 30 wins.
Owned and bred by Kathryn McLachlan, Northern Muscle secured his second win this season when overcoming the 30-metre handicap to claim victory by a neck.
Driver Mathew Neilson was having his fourth drive on the gelding and with 700 metres to travel, extricated from the running line to lead a three-wide line in pursuit of the leader.
Looming up to make a line of three turning for home, the leader Aveross Don was trying to fight on, while More Shades Of Gold that had done all the work outside the leader was brave, trying to rally.
However Northern Muscle was able to flex his power, finishing over the top to claim the victory and the first for Neilson aboard the seven-year-old.
Overall, Neilson became the fifth driver to partner Northern Muscle to race day success, with his trainer Denis Smith owning the most wins aboard the gelding with 14.
While Northern Muscle surpassed $150,000 in earnings, just 150 minutes prior to his win, Tough Monarch was able to claim a milestone of his own.
The Rickie Alchin-trained pacer set a new track record for over the Menangle 3009-metre standing start when claiming a Group 2 victory and record his 30th career win.
THE WILDCARD
The John Kerr-trained veteran Weasel is already a record holder for the most starts at Redcliffe and the evergreen fourteen-year-old is on the brink of another piece of history.
This Thursday at Redcliffe, Weasel will step out for career start number 376 which will move the veteran into 11th placing overall for most starts by a pacer in Australia.
To move into the top-10, the son of Mach Three will need three more starts - considering he races most weeks at Redcliffe, he should move into outright 10th position in another two weeks.
This season has seen some movement in the most career starts record, with Machin Out moving to eighth position with 385 starts.
Lancelot Bromac continues to move towards the record of Destreos with the Stewart Dickson-trained eleven-year-old currently second on the list with 433 career starts.
While in the mares category, Miss Catalina who was retired after her last race back in May, finished her career with 328 starts, recording 25 wins with two of those coming this season.
That saw the ten-year-old head into retirement ranked second on the mare’s tally for most career starts.
Not only are three of the current top 11 still racing, Weasel, Lancelot Bromac and Machin Out are all still showing a zest for racing and all three have been race winners this season.
THIS WEEK
Six meetings are on the schedule for this week in Queensland.
Marburg will host an eight-race program on Monday to coincide with the October long weekend.
Redcliffe will fill their normal slots with nine races on the Wednesday night card before 10 races are to be decided at the Peninsula club on Thursday afternoon.
Three meetings are scheduled at Albion Park in the next week starting with an eight-race card on Tuesday.
Friday will be a night fixture from The Creek with the week to be concluded with the metropolitan fixture on Saturday night.
Saturday’s highlight will be the mares qualifying pace with that race held over the 1660-metre trip to feature the increased stakes that have been proving popular in recent weeks.
The race to be drawn under the conditions of random barrier draw for mares that do not have a band assessment, will offer $20,000 in prizemoney.
