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.

Ross Adams has been walking with a spring in his step over the last few weeks and the reason isn’t hard to fathom. The veteran trainer is understandably excited about the return of his star filly Vincenzina following her winter spell - in fact she’ll be at the Menangle trials as this story goes onto the website.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I unashamedly claim some of the credit for Sarah Rushbrook’s winning double at Tamworth Paceway last Thursday. It was her fourth driving double to date and took her to 45 career wins.

Brad Abbott picked exactly the right moment to visit his fellow trainer Leon Jurd at the Menangle training complex in December of 2016.

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

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.