Aussie News with Adam Hamilton

GARY Hall Jr went tantalising close to doing what no other Aussie driver has done at Gloucester Park last Friday night.

Hall Jr drove six of the first nine winners and was chasing a record seventh win aboard $1.40 favourite Chicago Bull in the last race.

But he was nabbed right on the line by evergreen former Kiwi veteran Our Jimmy Johnstone.

It was a hard watch with Chicago Bull doing all the work outside the leader, scorching a 26.8sec third split and being nabbed in the very last stride.

Hall Jr still grabbed a slice of history by joining Kerryn Manning as the only Aussie driver to snare six wins on a meeting for the third occasion.

Hall Jr’s haul included the main race of the night, the $50,000 3YO Pearl Classic (2130m) aboard Justin Prentice’s Gardys Legacy.

As reported superbly in Perth’s West Australian newspaper, Gardys Lergacy’s win and ongoing success has united a grieving family.

The Bettor's Delight gelding is named after Shane Gardiner, who died in April last year in an accident on his 41^st birthday.

Gardiner was Prentice’s close friend and was about to become his brother-in-law.

“The more time we spent with each other, the more we realised we had in common,” Prentice said. “He (Gardys Legacy) has turned into a nice horse and different things remind you of Shane and the little things you miss.

“It makes it hard, but everyone understands where the name is from and what he means to us. Hopefully he (Shane) is up there helping us out.”

Gardys Legacy’s 14 starts have netted seven wins, two seconds and almost $90,000 in earnings.

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COMEBACK star Hectorjayjay is having a freshen-up before his next outing.

Trainer Jack Butler said the rising 10-year-old had been in work “a long, long time” before his two comeback runs, including last week’s slick Albion Park win.

“He had those couple of runs pretty close together and has come through them amazingly well,” he said. “He can have a couple of easy weeks now after all the work we’ve put into him and the we’ll start looking for some races again.”

Managing owner Matt McClellan is still shaking his ahead about the winning return last week.

“It’s just exciting to have him back, unexpected in many ways after everything he’s been through,” he said. “Jack’s done a fantastic job and there were some signs of the Hector the way he sprinted the other day.”

Although the Queensland Winter Carnival has cut right back by COVID, there are still some nice “mini” features for Hectorjayjay to target.

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IT’s finals week for the hotly-contested NSW Regional Championships.

First-up is the $100,000 Western Region final at Bathurst on Wednesday night where the emerging Make Mine Memphis is a warm $2 favourite courtesy of gate two ahead of Amanda Turnbull’s exciting Catch A Moment, who has to overcome the back row (gate nine).

The other $100,000 finals are at Wagga (Riverina region) on Friday then Newcastle (Hunter region) and Menangle (Metro region) on Saturday night.

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IN case you missed it, an important one for Kiwi trainers to note with the current Aussie harness season being extended until December 31.

It hasn’t pleased everyone, but the impact of COVID on our major race calendar has been massive and this change enables rescheduling of a raft of major age-restricted races, most notably the Breeders Crown.

It is understood the Breeders Crown will now be run in November.

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STAR Queensland pacer Colt Thirty One was brave in defeat first-up from a break, but trainer Grant Dixon kept in the “camp” by still winning the race.

Tennyson Bromac, owned by Kevin and Kay Seymour like Colt Thirty One, sat parked and kept finding to stave-off a very gallant Colt Thirty One by a nose in a slick 1min58.3sec mile rate for the 2647m stand.

Colt Thirty One’s effort from a 20m backmark was outstanding, pointing to a big winter campaign.

Throw Colt Thirty One, Hectorjayjay, Major Cam, Tennyson Bromac, Glenferrie Hood together and it makes for some fantastic Albion Park free-for-all racing in coming weeks and months.

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BRILLIANT young trotter Elite Stride is most likely headed for a break after another easy feature win at Menangle last night.

It was his seventh win on end and his eighth win from just nine starts, all in his first season of racing for Anthony Butt.

Unless Harness Racing Victoria quickly reschedules the Victoria Trotters’ Derby, Elite Stride will have a break and be set for the Breeders Crown, which is expected now to be run in November.

Craig Cross continued his recent total dominance of the Menangle free-for-alls by training the trifecta last night.

Favourite Cruz worked to the front, but it was the much-improved Pocket Of Terror who overpowered him late to win with another Cross runner, Motu Gatecrasher, finishing well for third.

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NZ Cup winning owner Danny Zavitsanos has found himself another serious horse.

Lightly-raced Art Major four-year-old Abouttime (out of former Kiwi mare Limerick Star) scorched around the Melton 1720m in a 1min52.9sec mile rate to win by 21.4m at yesterday morning’s meeting.

Abouttime won two of seven starts as a juvenile in Nathan Jack’s care, then had 20 months out with injury and has won five of six runs for Emma Stewart since returning.