Written by Robbie Dewar.
SADNESS pervaded the Western Australian harness racing industry following the learning of the death of the legendary Phil Coulson last week.
The legacy that is Phil Coulson lives long in the WA industry, his list of achievements is long and extensive.
- Coulson was the first of only two harness racing participants to win a WA Sports Star of The Year award, which he did in 1966; the other harness racing winner was Lou Austin in 1980.
- Won a James Brennan award winner.
- He was the trainer and driver of the first WA bred pacer to win an Inter Dominion Championship which he did with Binshaw in 1967.
- He was an inaugural inductee to the Racing Hall Of Fame in 2007.
- He is generally acknowledged as the instigator of using the “death” seat as a tactical weapon in races.
- Was a pioneer of interval training for pacers, he did that at a time when no one knew what interval training was.
Phil in and around the time that he won the Sports Star award and won the Inters with Binshaw, started to ask owners for a percentage of prizemoney ,as Phil explained in a 2008 interview with the Racing Ahead magazine.
“It was around about then that I asked owners for a percentage of stakemoney won or the odds to say 100 or 200 pounds.”
“In those days you never got fees like now, training fees were minimal and you basically survived on slings.”
“If owners wanted me to train or drive their horses I wanted a percentage, I had to survive, up until then everything was quite amateurish and this was the start of professionalism in the game,” Phil said in the interview.
Coulson won six Perth Trainers Premierships, five Perth Drivers Premierships , trained five WA Pacing Cup winners and drove seven WA Pacing Cup winners.
What may not be known about Phil Coulson was he was very giving of his time.
It was not uncommon for him to take time out to talk to people.
Deepest sympathy goes out to Phil’s family on their sad loss.
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SIRE Legacy Of Power had a big week siring the winners of three feature race winners within the space of three days.
Last Tuesday during the all juvenile metropolitan race day, Legacy Of Power sired Jessie Power to win the $100,000 2YO Fillies State Sires Final and Nic Nak Nero to win the Colts And Geldings Final.
Then on Friday night Has The Answers won his 20th race for the season when he led throughout to win the $35,000 Bundaberg Winter Cup (2536 metres).
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CONGRATULATIONS to the WA Trotting Association for their Winter In Wonderland promotion featuring an all juvenile metropolitan class race meeting.
A crowd of 2,500 turned up to witness an outstanding night of harness racing featuring the four $100,000 State Sires Finals for the two-year-olds and three-year-olds.
It was a crowd figure which far exceeded expectations.
The meeting provided a wonderfull entree to next season where the WATA are hoping to have it as a family day on a Sunday and try and make the day like the Breeders Crown in Melbourne and Jewels day in New Zealand.
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The racing on the Winter In Wonderland day was fantastic but punters were on the wrong side of the ledger.
If a hypothetical $1 all up had been put on the four winners of the Sires Finals the lucky punter would have hypothetically picked up a whopping $412,763.40.
Jessie Power provided the first blowout by winning the Fillies 2Y0 final and in the process gave driver Reon Tither not only his first Group 1 success, but also his first WA city class success since joining the John Graham camp back in late February.
Starting at odds of $79.90 on SuperTab Jessie Power was able to settle on the back of the leader Sweet Charlee before getting clear 75 metres from home and sprinting quickly to get up in the last two bounds and win by a head.
Nic Nac Nero ($7.50) provided trainer Maree Bonnet with her biggest win in the sport when winning the 2YO Colts And Geldings Final (2130 metres).
For Maree it was her first city class winner as a trainer since Chanoine won back in July 2004.
Edna Anne won at the triple figure price of $123.00 when winning the Three-Year-Old Fillies final.
Second last early, driver Nigel Johns took the daughter of Anne Of Avonlea three wide with 1000 metres to go and hit the front 300 metres from home before winning by a half length.
It was trainer Hayden Reeves first city class winner as a trainer in three years of training.
“I’d like to thank Nigel for all his help with this filly, she is a problem filly, not easy to handle and Nigel has been magnificent,” Reeves said.
The Feather Foot was heavily supported on SuperTab from $13.80 into $5.60 before winning the 3YO Colts And Geldings Final (2130 metres).
Driven by his trainer Chris Brew, The Feather Foot won the start and led but looked beaten 100 metres from home when Erris Lad hit the front.
However The Feather Foot fought back courageously to regain the lead and win by a head.
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WE know how tough Gary Hall (snr) trained horses are, we see that every time they go out for a race, but it’s not just the horses that are tough, so is the man himself!
Less than 48 hours after cutting the tendon on his left hand Hall (snr) was at Gloucester Park overseeing his team of pacers.
“I was cutting a horses hoof with a cutting knife and cut the tendon of my left hand,” Hall (snr) said.
“I got operated on under local anaesthetic and have had a plastercast put on so that I don’t use it.”
“On Tuesday I’ve got to go back to the Physio and get the plaster cast taken off and get a new splint put on,” Hall (snr) concluded.
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FRIDAY nights feature race the $35,000 Bundaberg Red Winter Cup (2536 metres) was won by the states iron horse Has The Answers.
Finding the front soon after start, the firming $3.90 SuperTab second favourite was able to get away with a 32.2 second first 400 metre sectional before running home the last 800 metres in a very quick 56.4 seconds. This made it extremely difficult for horses coming from the back to overhaul the leader, especially on the rain affected track.
In the prior seven races only one horse, Magiclittlepartner, had come from worse than fourth at the bell to win.
Im Themightyquinn put up a sensational performance to get within two metres of Has The Answers.
Severely checked at the start, Im Themightyquinn lost anything up to 30 metres and was allowed to find his feet before being taken three wide with 750 metres to travel.
Soon after reaching the apex of the home corner, the accolades were in the process of being rolled out as it looked for 50 or so metres that Im Themightyquinn might get over Has The Answers, but that wasn’t to be.
In a phenomenal season, Has The Answers has had 41 starts for 20 wins and 12 placings and Friday nights win took his stake earnings to just shy of $650,000. With seven weeks remaining of the season it would be a brave man to predict that he won’t break the $700,000 stake earning barrier by seasons end.
After the race trainer Tony Svilicich said the way the horse performed and the time he ran on Friday night there is no reason not to keep racing the seven-year-old.
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PLEASING to see a couple of the lower profile trainers have some success in the past with Phil Costello winning with Baza Magoo at Pinjarra on Monday and Dennis Roche winning with Fairly Powerful at Narrogin on Saturday night.
Roche has had a bit of success in recent times with Nipperinghall winning two of his last five starts.
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EVEN though the Golden Nugget is still four months away the preparations are starting to happen.
Capel trainer Andrew De Campo has set Friday winner Lombo Navigator for the state’s biggest four-year-old race after the son of Lombo Anastasia overcame an outside front line draw to win the Bundaberg Rum-Real Smooth Rum 3YO Pace (2536 metres) on Friday night.
Lombo Navigator was having his third start this campaign.
“He’ll probably have another two starts before going to the paddock and then be brought back for the Golden Nugget,” De Campo said.
A consistent type, Lombo Navigator has won 11 of his 21 starts with a further four placings.
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Saturday night’s Narrogin meeting could turn out to be a very interesting meeting as time progresses.
Motu Treasure won the opening qualifying heat of the John Higgins Memorial when winning by two lengths as a $1.10 favourite and in the process winning his third successive race.
Stablemate Ohokas Bondy could not have been more impressive when winning the opening race over 1823 metres.
Not winning a race in 10 starts in New Zealand before joining the Bond camp, Ohokas Bondy came out and blew his rivals away winning by seven and a half lengths.
What about the performance of the Shannon Suvaljko prepared Outofgas?
The two-year-old gallopped out of the mobile losing 30 metres before catching the field and going three wide with 900 metres to go, hitting the front 600 metres out and winning by a sulkys length in a strong performance.
The win of the Kim Young trained and driven Village Conqueror also showed signs of a positive future when winning over 2242 metres.
