Young turns back the clock at Cambridge

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk  

Over half a century ago he was New Zealand's champion junior driver and he went on to train an Inter Dominion winner in 1979.

Now Peter Young is back driving, in the amateur ranks, and tonight he will be at Cambridge Raceway for just his second drive in a decade. 

Young will drive Gwendoline Mary in Race 3, the Hire A Venue @ Cambridge Raceway Amateurs Mobile Pace (6.00pm).

He was encouraged to get back into racing by Gwendoline Mary's trainer Jay Abernethy.

"At first I said you've got to be joking, I'm coming up 77," says Young. 

But after some hit-outs at the trials he returned to the track with a fourth with Gwendoline Mary at Cambridge on January 4. It was his first race day drive since 2016. 

"It went pretty good. It was just the footrests ..they are pretty tough on the hips," he laughed.

After reining home his first winner as a junior driver in Auckland with Tryout in 1967 Young has had 230 driving wins in total, and more than 140 as a trainer.

His greatest moment was training Rondel, driven by the legendary Peter Wolfenden, to win the 1979 Inter Dominion Final at Addington, beating the likes of Sapling, Lord Module and Trusty Scot. 

"Everyone said it was a fluke but it wasn't," says Young.

"He'd won a two mile heat on the second night and we were confident."

"He'd won the Thames Cup, the Franklin Cup and the Stratford Cup - he was a tough horse."

Now 47 years later he's back driving on a track he knows better than most. 

He's a part-time groundsman at Cambridge - "I've been there for about seven years" - and also works with the crash crew on race night.   

As for his chances tonight?

"From the draw I should get a good run on the fence and hopefully we will run home good."

In the early markets Gwendoline Mary was at $16 with last start winner Dominus the favourite at $2.80.