Catch up on the week's harness racing action in our weekly review, thanks to Darren Clayton.
GRAHAMS GRAB TREBLE
Wayne and Shane Graham combined for a winning treble at Albion Park on Friday night with two long-time clients enjoying the success.
Sheer Artistry finished best to claim the opening race of the night.
The Terry Flynn-owned four-year-old mare charged down the centre of the track to score an impressive new personal best winning time of 1.54.4 with her victory.
Flynn secured a race-to-race winning double when Go Colour My World won race two.
Go Colour My World finished in similar fashion to his stablemate by working home strongly in the latter stages to claim victory.
There was plenty of symmetry with the wins.
Both pacers are four-year-old progeny of siring superstar Art Major, both have won three races this season and both have eight career victories to their name.
Additionally, both pacers were purchased from the same New Zealand sale by Flynn in 2022.
Go Colour My World was successful in the Vale Sherryl Corazzol pace, which is a race that both Wayne and Shane were honoured to win.
Sherryl was the wife of Ian Corazzol who sadly lost her battle with cancer recently.
The Grahams have trained and driven winners for the Corazzols for three decades.
It was only fitting that the third leg of the winning treble was with a horse owned and bred by Ian Corazzol, Thetorque Majority.
Thetorque Majority is a three-year-old that has displayed plenty of ability thus far in his career.
The gelding led throughout for a fifth career victory from just 13 starts.
Corazzol bred the gelding from his Group 1-winning mare Torque In Motion, who has also produced the Queensland Oaks winner Torque Like Motion.
The classy Art Major gelding will now head towards the upcoming QBRED Breeders Classic heats this Friday.
DIXON DOMINATION
Trista Dixon proved she was the driver to follow on Saturday night at Albion Park.
She landed a quartet of winners with three of those coming in consecutive races.
While it was four driving victories for Trista, it was also four training wins for Grant Dixon.
All four winners are raced in the same interest, GSM Racing, which is headed by Albion Park Harness Racing Club chairman Greg Mitchell.
Chamonix was the first winner on the board.
The seven-year-old darted through along the passing lane to land the 17th win of his career.
Later in the program, Arkin Wicked sat outside the leader before pulling clear in the home stretch to record the 14th win of his career and first this season.
Trotter Zealous Spur also scored on the night.
Trista sent the eight-year-old straight to the front when the mobile released the field, which is a position he was never in danger of relinquishing to post his 14th victory under the Dixons care.
The lead in the state metropolitan premiership moved back in favour of Grant Dixon on Saturday night, establishing a four-win lead over Chantal Turpin.
The winners also provided another milestone moment for the Dixon stable, reaching 100 winners this season.
The win of Arkin Wicked was the 100th this year.
It was Zealous Spur that made it 100 Australian wins, factoring in the New Zealand victory of Leap To Fame in April.
STAR GAZING
Wisper A Secret made it three successive open class wins with another Albion Park victory on Saturday night.
With his stake earnings edging past $500,000 with the latest victory, the five-year-old will be a force in the Inter Dominion and any race he contests during the Queensland Constellations.
Another horse from the Chantal Turpin stable that suggests they could be a The Rising Sun candidate is Attachment.
The four-year-old returned for his first appearance this season with an impressive victory.
Settled in the running line, the gelding arrived in the last stride for a stylish return.
A spot in The Hayden also is likely for Attachment as his owner John Polson holds a slot in the race.
In New Zealand, Group 1-winning two-year-old Fugitive made it four wins in five starts to push his case for a start in The Protostar.
Carter Dalgety, the driver of Fugitive, is hopeful that his performances were noticed by slot holders for the rich two-year-old feature.
Meanwhile, Andy Gath has the top two ranked trotters in the Inter Dominion.
The second ranked Watts Up Partytime landed a second consecutive victory with a strong Melton win.
At Menangle, Kanena Provlima and Nyack, ranked 22 and 24 respectively, were both successful as they build towards the pacers Inter Dominion.
THE WEEK AHEAD
A total of seven straight days of racing in Queensland begin with a Monday afternoon meeting from Redcliffe.
There will be two further meetings for the week at the Peninsula club.
The last two Trot Rod events will be held on Wednesday night prior to the Trot Rod finale night the following week.
Albion Park will host its regular three meetings, with the Tuesday card highlighted by heats of the QBRED Breeders Classic for two-year-olds.
There will be three heats for colts and geldings and two for fillies.
The Friday night card will feature the heats for three-year-old pacers of both sex before the week concludes at Marburg with a Sunday afternoon fixture.
