Jason Proctor had two chances to finish his race driving career on a winning note at Newcastle on Sept 17th 2016.

You could have knocked me over with a feather the night an immaculately dressed twelve year old boy wearing a pork pie hat bowled up to me at Penrith trots, declaring one of my horses a “good thing”.

I was surprised when Club Menangle historian Peter Collier told me that forty trotting trainers and drivers have died in accidents since the sport began in Australia. In conjunction with his Victorian counterpart John Peck, Peter has worked tirelessly for years to identify the people involved and to trace the circumstances of their fatal accidents.

Stumbled upon a couple of photos of Hondo Grattan the other day. That’s all it takes to trigger memories of one of the most charismatic harness horses of all time. Did a quick check to learn that it’s coming up twenty five years since the little champ passed away at the Turnbull family’s Loyal Stud near Bathurst.

Dennis Picker is one trots trainer who has no intention of getting caught up in the grind of racing all year round. 

In the last six or seven years Dennis has established a pattern of working a team of twenty horses, including five yearlings

Howard James was twelve years old when he first met Brian Hancock. Young Howard spent most weekends and school holidays with brothers, Brian and Richard Hancock, who were rapidly establishing their commercial training operation.

The crowd had dwindled and the bids were sparse when Lot 202 walked into the ring at the 2015 Bathurst Gold Crown yearling sale. Chris Frisby had already secured a couple of “cheapies” and wasn’t really interested in a third. He sat down for a moment and took a cursory look at the Sportswriter colt from Rooftop Fairy.

Queensland’s Weidemann family have been attending Tamworth harness meetings for more than thirty years, which remains a source of bewilderment to most people in the sport.

Joe Conolly isn’t the first policeman to have trained harness horses. The question was raised by trot fans after the Conolly trained ten year old All About Art, won the opening race at Penrith last week.

Had Lisa Miles not had an inherent love of the standardbred horse, she may have pursued a career with the RAAF. For the last seven years of her time at Melton’s Mowbray College, young Lisa Lewis was a member of the Air Training Corps.