Mildura Harness Racing Club has assembled a terrific line-up of champion drivers from Australia and New Zealand for its Invitational Drivers series at the City Oval Paceway tomorrow night.
Mildura’s leading driver, Shayne Cramp, will contest the three-race series with fellow Victorian representatives Daryl Douglas, Greg Sugars and Nathan Jack.
The New Zealand drivers are Anthony Butt and Nathan Williamson, while the other top drivers are Gary Hall Jnr (WA), David Harding and Mark Billinger from South Australia, and Robert Morris representing NSW.
New Zealander Nathan Williamson is a late call-up to contest the championship, replacing Dexter Dunn who is unable to make the trek across to Australia.
Williamson has had a successful association with Springbank Richard as he steered the top class trotter to victory in the Victoria Trotters Derby at Maryborough in 2007 and he recently made the journey across the Tasman to partner the trotter to success at Shepparton two weeks ago in the first round of heats of the Inter Dominion Trotting Championship.
Williamson has driven 295 winners during an already impressive driving career and he is the son of leading New Zealand trotting trainer Phil who has enjoyed a lot of success in previous raids in Australia with the top class square-gaiters One Over Kenny and Allegro Agitato.
Nathan Williamson will fly out of New Zealand tomorrow morning to contest the Invitational Drivers series at Mildura on the night.
He will then head to Tabcorp Park, Melton on Saturday to drive Springbank Richard, who is a leading contender in the $250,000 Inter Dominion Trotting Championship grand final.
The Mildura meeting will be held in conjunction with Sunraysia Cancer Resources with donations to support prostate cancer.
A Punters Club will be conducted for a donation of $10 per ticket and all winning proceeds will be donated to prostate cancer research.
There will also be competitions for the on-course patrons with a $500 Bunnings voucher to be won as well as a portable DVD player and the club will also hold a Pick 5 competition which carries a winning prize pool of $500.
Young local drivers in new series
Bendigo Harness Racing Club and the Harness Racing Training Centre (HRTC) have introduced a unique new three-race series for selected young drivers from Victoria.
The HRTC Rising Stars Young Drivers Series will be held at Bendigo tomorrow afternoon, Maryborough on Friday, February 17 and the three-race series will culminate at Bendigo on Sunday, February 19.
Invited drivers for the new series were determined by the HRTC and the Bendigo Harness Racing Club.
The series is restricted to young drivers who have not had a lot of opportunities in their fledgling careers.
To be eligible the drivers must be under 25 years of age and have had less than 100 career drives.
Young local drivers Jacob Kerridge and Denbeigh Wade have been selected to compete in the series and they should both acquit themselves very well in the championship as they have been gaining plenty of driving opportunities at Mildura over recent meetings.
Claiming race
Mildura Harness Racing Club has programmed a Claiming event for its Wednesday night meeting on February 29.
The event is for pacers with a claiming price not exceeding $9000 and the event will be held in conjunction with the opening heats of the Alabar Bloodstock Northern Region Championship.
“A few trainers in the region have inquired with interest in having runners for the race. Harness Racing Victoria decided to program the race on the same meeting as the Northern Region Championship as there will be plenty of visiting trainers who may assist in getting enough runners to run the event,” secretary manager of the Mildura Harness Racing Club Mark Kemp said.
Upcoming meetings
One of the feature meetings of the year will be held at Mildura tomorrow night with the three-race Invitation Drivers series.
The first of eight races on the program will start at 6.21pm and members of the Mildura Working Man’s Club will be admitted to the meeting free of charge by presenting their membership card.
Nyah Harness Racing Club will hold its next meeting on Wednesday night, February 15.
Feature events are the C6 or Better Pace and the C3 to C5 Pace.
Nominations close with Harness Racing Victoria at noon next Thursday, February 9.
Horses to follow
THIS week’s list of horses to follow are: Hesa Buzzin, Our Chain Of Command, Christian Shadow, Vito Vito, Forest Babe and Black Caprice.
This article appeared in Thursday's Sunraysia Daily 2-2-2012.
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