You’ll be hard pressed to find a horseman who isn’t enamoured of the sight of a talented trotter in full flight. Power Productions have kindly allowed me access to a video production highlighting the poetry of the trotting horse and the devotion of those who train them.

Wayne Dimech was in his mid-teens when Hondo Grattan was dominating the harness racing headlines in the early 1970’s. He had obviously inherited the harness racing genes from his Maltese forebears.

There’s no better pointer for punters than a Darren Hancock trained horse turning up at Penrith. The leading horseman has been an unabashed fan of the 1400m Menangle circuit since its inception in 2008

Laurence Dawson is one of many young horsemen who’ve worked hard to carve themselves a niche in harness racing rather than turn their backs on a sport they’ve grown to love.

We’d like to share with you a snappy HRNSW promotional video featuring the highlights of the sport in the first half of the current season. This video was produced by Power Productions.

Bill Hansell’s career in harness racing had just begun when the dual Academy Award winning movie “The Quiet Man” was released in 1952. The title of the famous John Wayne classic best describes the persona of Bill Hansell.

Stumbled upon this photo of a pacer called Pick On (Percy Hall) winning a qualifying heat of the 1952 Inter Dominion Championship at Harold Park. Note the “snug” hopple length on a horse who stood close to 17 hands.

To family and friends Tony Turnbull always seemed indestructible. On non race days during his training career, he’d work from dawn to dusk before trying to catch up on badly needed sleep.

Every now and again fate produces a result in the racing codes that inspires the little man to keep trying. Such a fairy tale moment occurred at Menangle on Saturday night when Silk Cloud totally outclassed a handy bunch of juvenile fillies in the Fran Fitzpatrick Cheryl McDowell Pink Bonnet.

To see Jim Douglass in action on a busy night at the trots is a sight to behold. For best effect you need to watch him on those occasions when his boss Ian Wilson has four or five runners engaged.

Jack Trainor didn’t expect to have two runners in the same race just five weeks into his professional training career. Even more bizarre was the fact that he has only four horses in work at his Menangle base.

Genetics can be an unpredictable study but they ran true to form in the case of siblings Ashley and Cameron Hart. The brother and sister duo are the only children of Mark and Michelle Hart and grew up in the Riverina township of Junee, a veritable harness racing stronghold.

It’s a very rare Tuesday afternoon when Norm Warland and his evergreen mare Just Tootsie aren’t spotted in the float parking area at Club Menangle. Norm has only a twenty minute trip to the track from his Douglas Park property. You’ll never see him with a helper. Just Norm and Tootsie.

This might seem like a long winded way to highlight the kindly nature of Colin Watts, but the story is well worth the telling. In the week leading up to Easter of 1988 or 1989 I got a phone call from a distraught Tracy Grimshaw, the seemingly ageless host of the Nine Network’s “A Current Affair”.

Drawing a comparison between Gavin Lang and Michelangelo may seem a fanciful proposition. Not so when you analyse the words of a 16th century biographer who completed his work on Michelangelo, while the Renaissance genius was still alive.

Most busy jockeys and harness racing drivers are confidence players. A win early in the programme can set their mood for the rest of the card. It seems a disappointing start makes no difference to the mindset of young Hunter Valley trots driver Blake Hughes.

Stephanie Lippiatt couldn’t believe it had finally happened as she took Catch A Moment onto the track for the Schweppes Lady Drivers Invitational on Saturday night.

When it comes to horses I’m a hopeless sentimentalist. I had the pleasure of calling Halwes in all of his Harold Park wins in the late 1960’s and he left an indelible impression on me. He was a horse of high speed, great reserves of stamina and a terrific will to win.

The Bathurst Harness Racing Club hosted a magnificent birthday bash on Sunday for one of its favourite sons. Family and friends gathered to honour the legendary A.D. “Tony” Turnbull on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

When veteran pacer Beetson stepped onto the track at Bathurst a week before Christmas, trainer Peter Trevor-Jones wasn’t aware his ageless warrior was about to race for the 200th time.