Vale Susan Branch

By Michael Guerin

One of the last wins of Susan Branch’s training career was just about perfect.

The much-loved Cambridge trainer died last Thursday after suffering complications during heart surgery.

While she had good success during her long career as a trainer, often with horses from the cheaper end of the scale, it is as an ever-present and supportive lover of the harness racing industry that many will remember her.

But among decades of watching every harness television show, attending almost every Cambridge meeting and doing just about every volunteer role there is, there were diamonds, the moments why racing people do what they do.

For Susan Branch that was at Alexandra Park on March 6.

Romeo Foxtrot, the old gentleman trotter who she trained and part-owned with husband Murray and son David, beat the great Oscar Bonavena.

“Romeo was the last horse Mum trained and he gave her three wins in a row at Alexandra Park at one stage,” says David.

“But the night he beat Oscar Bonavena meant so much because Mum loved Oscar too.”

Susan was bred into harness racing, her father Ron Gee being a trainer and she was a twin, her twin sister Jenny marrying Cambridge trainer Robbie Hughes.

Susan penned her own page in harness history by being the first woman to win a race at Claudelands, beating Maurice McKendry, John Langdon and Peter Wolfenden.  Overall she drove 60 winners and had 94 wins as trainer (1978-2026).  

As a trainer she had a serious horse in Fellas Ego, who won eight races here and more in Australia, Silverstone also won eight while Saucy Star won a DB Fillies Series heat.

But her pride and joy was a horse she didn’t train but bred and part-owned. 

His name was Youneverknow and he was one of our best three-year-old trotters last season with placings in the Sires’ Stakes and being the first Kiwi home in The Ascent behind Tracey The Jet last November.

“Mum bred him after breeding and training his dam. She had always wanted to have a horse with Tony [Herlihy] who was her favourite all-time driver,” remembers David.

Susan was everywhere at her local Cambridge track, whether helping out with Kidz Kartz, in the Winners Bar and even working as a swabbing steward at the gallops.

She and Jenny even dragged some of their thoroughbred industry friends into the harness racing industry through their Daydream Believers Syndicate, that ended up having shares in 12 horses who won 31 races. That group also owned 5 per cent of the slot that Just Believe raced in when he won the TAB Trot.

Susan, who is survived by Murray and David, will visit her beloved Cambridge Raceway for the last time this Wednesday when her funeral service will start at 1pm.

“We ask that those who can attend wear at least a little pink, or a lot,” says David.

It is fitting Cambridge Raceway is where most will say their goodbyes to Susan as it was a place where she made so many feel welcome over so many years.