COURTESY OF HARNESS RACING UPDATE
PETE McMullen and Chantal Turpin have gone from pony trot rivals almost 30 years ago to one of the biggest and best training teams in Australasia.
The married couple, both now 34, were just six years old when they first raced against each in pony trotting races at Brisbane’s home of harness racing, Albion Park.
Next month they will return to Albion Park, also known as “The Creek”, with two of the biggest stars of the rich Brisbane Inter Dominion series.
Exciting pacer The Janitor is second favourite behind the great Leap To Fame for the $1 million pacing final.
The brilliant but sometimes headstrong Gus is a raging hot favourite to win the $500,000 trotting final.
The iconic series consists of two rounds of qualifying heats on July 4 and 11 before the finals on July 18.
“Sometimes you do stop and think we’re going into our hometown Inter Dominion with a favourite and second favourite, but Chantal and I have a big team of horses and young family, so we’ve got lots to think about,” McMullen said.
“Of course, it’s exciting and it’s great to have stars like The Janitor and Gus.”
McMullen recalls driving against Turpin as a youngster and that grew into a relationship when the pair were 16.
“We’ve been together since then,” he said.
When they started dating, they were both junior drivers on the rise.
“At the time, we were the first two people to drive more than 100 winners before we turned 18. Others have done it since,” McMullen said.
“Chantal was the top junior driver in her first year. She kept driving a lot up until we started a family, but only does it occasionally now.”
Turpin has driven 431 winners and, interestingly, her last winner in the sulky was The Janitor at Albion Park on November 23, 2024.
“She likes driving, but it’s just so hard with everything else now,” McMullen said.
The couple run Somerset Farm, about an hour west of Brisbane, for the past four years.
“As well as training about 50 horses, we’ve got two daughters (Riley and Olivia), and we stand stallions at the farm, too.
“The girls are into their sport, which is great, but that brings with it a lot of work and time with it, too. In a good way, of course.
“That’s part of why we went into the farm and the stallions, so I could back off the driving a bit and have more time with the kids.”
As a trainer, Turpin boasts over 1900 winners, including nine at Group 1 level.
She and McMullen have become not just a huge Queensland force, but a major Australasian player as well.
That was never more evident than when Gus, who has taken lots of patience and hard work to trot safely and show his full talent, won the huge Group 1 double - Dominion Trot and NZ Trotting free-for-all – at NZ’s famous Cup Week at Addington last November.
“That was fairytale stuff,” McMullen said. “Not that we didn’t think he had the ability or was good enough to do it, but just to actually go to another country and win on such a big stage as that, not once, but twice in a week.
“It was so rewarding after all the work we, especially Chantal, had put into him.
“We loved him from the start, but he would do things wrong and when you asked him to run, he’d just want to flat out.
“NZ showed how far he’s come. It gave us more confidence in him and earned him respect from rivals, too.”
It also gave McMullen his eighth and ninth Group 1 wins in a stellar driving career, which has netted over 3500 wins.
He’s won two Australian Driving Premierships, ending the great Chris Alford’s six-year dominance in 2021 and repeating the dose in 2022.
McMullen also won the 2014 Australian Drivers’ Championship and finished sixth when he represented Australia in the 2023 World Drivers’ Championship.
“As I said, I cut back a bit on the driving a few years back with the farm and family, but have probably been driving a fair bit more because our team is going so well,” he said.
“This is by far the best team we’ve had, obviously headed by Gus and The Janitor, but we’ve got some nice three-year-olds for the Derby and Oaks, Fernco Nel for the Rising Sun and a possible two-year-old Aardies A Star for the (2YO Protostar).”
The barn will be massive players over the next six weeks.
McMullen said a fantastic and loyal group of owners, headed by Ross Patrick (owner of Gus and Fernco Nel) and Craig Whiteoak (The Janitor), have been both the foundations and source of growth in the stable.
“Success breeds success, along with the ability to turn horses over and look for a replacement,” McMullen said.
“That’s where we’ve been good at selling horses to the US, who have gone on and done good jobs.
“We sell a lot of horses to the States and that enables the owners to reinvest. It’s been a really important part of our success.”
Like so many in harness racing, McMullen and Turpin come from harness racing families.
McMullen’s grandfather was the legendary Hall of Famer, JC “Hollywood” McMullen. His father, John, has had plenty of success.
Turpin’s father, Tony, has had training success and is also the Albion Park track curator.
So, who’s the best chance out of Gus and The Janitor to give the barn its first Inter Dominion crown?
The betting says Gus.
“He’s right on target. He ran 26sec or maybe a bit quicker for his last half beating a good pacer in a trial the other day. There’s not many trotters who could do that,” McMullen said. “He’s as fast as any pacer we’ve got.”
With champion mare Keayang Zahara missing the trotting series, Gus clearly looks the one to beat.
“The Janitor has Leap To Fame to deal with again and I’d be his (Leap To Fame’s) biggest fan. He’s unbelievable, he’s unreal,” McMullen said.
“We’ve got close to him in the Blacks A Fake (last December) and Miracle Mile (March) which gives you hope our turn will come one day, but we’re going to need luck. We’re going to need everything to go right.”
When The Janitor dashed at Leap To Fame in the last 150m of the Miracle Mile, most thought he would win.
“So did I for a moment. I think I headed him and he kicked back,” McMullen said. “I definitely lost momentum on the home bend when they pushed me wide, so I’d have got to him quicker and earlier, but would he have still kicked back again?
“A bit like Gus, but not quite to the same extent, The Janitor has been a work in progress. It’s all starting to come together for him. Hopefully this will be his year.”
