Trainers who live within earshot of their stables seem to develop an uncanny sensitivity to the sounds made by a horse in trouble. Junortoun trainer Bruce Morgan has been lured from his bed many times over the years by the familiar thrashing of a horse cast in its box, but around 7.30 pm on July 17th he was puzzled by a sound he’d never heard before.
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.
So sorry to learn that Victorian trainer Bruce Morgan is a patient in the Royal Melbourne Hospital, after suffering a stroke at his Bendigo stables last week. The esteem in which this man is held by all sections of the Victorian harness racing industry, was acknowledged in the most fitting way in 2015. He was awarded the Gordon Rothacker Medal, named after a doyen of the sport, and a role model to a young Bruce Morgan in the 60’s and 70’s.
