Gary Hall Jnr Photo by Pacepix
On Friday, February 21 WA star reinsman Gary Hall Jnr will look to make his mark in Queensland when he contests the 2025 Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Competition for slot holder Gloucester Park Gurus, with the WA team vying for the $100,000 cash first prize.
In a never-before-seen concept, 10 of the world best harness racing drivers will go head-to-head in 20 races spread over two exciting days of racing at The Creek, Albion Park on February 21 and 22.
Slot holders play a crucial role in the series, with each slot not only selecting their drivers but also choosing horses to compete across the 20 races, with an incredible total prize pool of $250,000 on offer.
“We think its important that WA is represented in some way, 85% of our wagering comes from the eastern states and I think this is a good way of promoting to that large market.”
“We put in our own bid and there was another bid that also put in with a driver from WA, and Racing QLD said if we could talk to each other and see if we can come up with a partnership, which we did, the guys that we’re dealing with are heavily invested in WA, they’re not all from WA, some live in the eastern states, but they all own horses in WA and they invest heavily as far as wagering goes in WA.” Michael Radley said.
Gloucester Park have a 20% share in the slot, with the ‘Guru’s’ making up the majority shareholder with 80%.
“These are all form experts, which is part of the reason we partnered with them because an element of the series is actually picking your horses, so obviously we needed someone to go out and pick the horses, which is their job.”
Michael Young, Oliver Cownie, Matt Leppard, Gary Hall Snr, Matt Joss and Glenn Hepburn make up the Gurus component of the slot holders.
The snakehead draft will be conducted today, Wednesday 19 where all slots will have their opportunity to pick their horses in the 20 races over the two-day competition in Queensland.
“We’re number nine, so we get the ninth pick in round one, but in round two we get the second pick, and so on.”
Gary Hall Jnr will head to Queensland on Thursday.
“I’m looking forward to it, I’m pretty excited, I don’t know when and if I’ll get to drive against some of those guys again so it’s a pretty good opportunity.”
“I’ve always wanted to go over there (America) and drive, so I’ll talk to Dexter a bit about it and Yannick and pick their brains a bit about it. “
“I’d like to give it a go, even if it’s six weeks or something, just have a go and say I’ve done it.”
Gloucester Park CEO Michael Radley was very impressed with the competition and its concept and expects that it will get plenty of new eyes on the sport.
“I think it’s a great innovation as far as promoting and actually doing a bit of a carnival that’s slightly out of the box and I think it’s just fantastic for harness racing, it’s a really good thing that Brisbane is doing and they’re actually kicking a few goals over here.”
Dexter Dunn will be driving for Ladbrokes in the series, with the New Zealand born but now residing in America driver hitting the shores of Queensland fresh off his fifth USA Driver of the Year award.
Canadian driver Yannick Gingras AKA The Green Hornet makes his way to Australia to contest the competition for slot holder Aaron Bain Racing/Summit Bloodstock/Ron Burke/Weaver Bruscemi Syndicate.
With over 8000 wins in the cart, including taking out the prestigious Little Brown Jug three times, it comes as no surprise that his lifetime stakes earnings are in excess of $230 million.
Triple Play Syndicate – Brad Hewitt
First Over Crush Syndicate – Nathan Dawson
SEN, Garrards and 1Equine Syndicate – Angus Garrard
N40 Racing/Boys Get Paid Syndicate – Carter Dalgety
Tumby Park Syndicate – Bjorn Goop
Gath Racing Group Supporting Team Teal – Kate Gath
The Unharnessed Hawks Syndicate – Pete McMullen
Day one of the competition gets underway this Friday, with the Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Heat 1 scheduled for 3.35pm WST.
