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Cardigan Bay was a New Zealand harness racing pacer foaled 1 September 1956. Affectionately known as "Cardy", he was the first Standardbred to win US$1 million in prize money in North America. He was the ninth horse worldwide to win one million dollars,. Cardigan Bay won races in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Kingston Town was a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who won three Cox Plates and 11 other Group One races and was the 1980 Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year.
Young Quinn, a New Zealand standardbred racehorse, was successful in period where his competition in the sport of trotting was particularly strong. Foaled in 1969, he was by Young Charles out of Loyal Trick by Hal Tryax (USA). Named after Brian "Snow" Quinn, a champion New Zealand sheep shearer, he was trained and driven by the great Charles Stewart Hunter (Charlie). He was nicknamed 'Garbage' as a result of his habit of eating anything in sight, as a young horse. It was later revealed by cardiograph tests that Young Quinn's heart weighed 13 lb, only 1 lb less than that of the great racehorse Phar Lap.
Paleface Adios (1969–1989) was an Australian harness racing horse which competed as a pacer throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. He raced from 1972 to 1981, when there was top competition from the likes of the Hondo Grattan and Pure Steel.
Pure Steel is the only pacer to win the A G Hunter Cup, a race over 3,050 metres and the richest handicap race for pacers in the world, three times, in 1977, 1978, and 1980. He was the first Standardbred horse to win A$500,000 in Australia. Pure Steel also won the WA Benson & Hedges Cup four times. Affectionately known as Steelo or the "Tungsten Terror", he raced from 1974 until 1983 and won just under $1 million, at a time when competition was strong, with the great horses Paleface Adios and Hondo Grattan as competitors.
Thomas John Smith was a leading trainer of thoroughbred racehorses based in Sydney, New South Wales.
Super Impose was a New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. In a career spanning 74 starts, he won eight Group One races and a then Australasian record $5.6 million in prize money. Trained throughout his career by Lee Freedman and ridden in his Group One wins by Bruce Compton (once), Darren Gauci (once), Darren Beadman, and Greg Hall (once), Super Impose won the AJC Epsom and Doncaster Handicaps two years in a row, in 1990 and 1991, and won the Cox Plate at his penultimate start as an eight-year-old in 1992.
The Australian Grand Circuit for Pacers
Harness racing, also colloquially known as trotting or the trots, is a spectator sport in Australia, with significant amounts of money wagered annually with bookmakers and the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB). In Australia there are 90 harness racing tracks, which hold over 1,900 meetings annually. There are approximately 2,900 drivers and 4,000 trainers with about 5,000 Standardbred horses foaled and registered each year.
Popular Alm (1976–2000) was an Australian bred Standardbred pacer. He was one of the fastest pacers Australia has produced, running exceptional times over many distances. Popular Alm set a world record for a mile time trial at Moonee Valley on 13 May 1983, running 1:53.2. He raced 62 times over seven seasons for 49 wins, seven seconds and three thirds for stake earnings of $710,883. He was known as "Poppy".
A race caller is a public-address announcer or sportscaster who describes the progress of a race, either for on-track or radio and TV fans. They are most prominent in horse racing, auto racing and track-and-field events.
Maori's Idol was an Australian Standardbred racehorse. He was the first Australian trotter to break two minutes with a time of 1:59.3 on 19 November 1977 at Moonee Valley. Maori's Idol became one of Australia's greatest trotters, with a record 24 successive race victories before being placed third in the 1978 Melbourne Inter-Dominion Final. He is still the trotting record holder with 22 wins in a season. He was superior to his rivals. He could have gone through his career unbeaten had he been placed to advantage by his connections.
Hondo Grattan was a Standardbred pacer from Bathurst, New South Wales known as the "Bathurst Bulldog". He won the Inter Dominion Pacing Championship in both 1973 and 1974, becoming the first horse to successfully defend an Inter Dominion title. Hondo Grattan was the first horse in Australia to win (AUD)$200,000 and also the first horse to win 21 races at Harold Park Paceway. He was a winner at a time of top competition, that included horses such as Pure Steel and Paleface Adios. He was inducted into the Inter Dominion Hall of Fame.
Michael Wrona is an announcer from Brisbane, Australia specializing in Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred horse racing. He is best known for the phrase "Racing!", which he says at the start of every race call.
Harold Park Paceway was a harness racing track in Forest Lodge, New South Wales, in use from 1890 to 2010. It was a half-mile track but was just 739 metres in circumference until some changes in its later years. Races at the track were run over distances of 1,760 m, 2,160 m, 2,565 m and occasionally 2,965 m. Before its configuration, events were run over one mile, 9 furlongs and 170 yards, 11+3⁄4 furlongs, 13 furlongs and 98 yards and 15 furlongs and 92 yards – these distances were all for standing starts. For mobile racing, the distances were one mile, 9+1⁄2 furlongs and 11+1⁄2 furlongs.
Malcolm Andrews was an Australian author and journalist. In his 45-year career, he worked for such media organisations as The Australian, the Daily Telegraph (Sydney), the Daily Express (London) and the Nine Network's current affairs program, Today. In the early 1970s, he spent five years in Munich working for the US State Department at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcast news behind the Iron Curtain.
Bert Bryant (1927–1991) is regarded as one of Australia's top racecallers of Thoroughbred horse racing in the twentieth century.
Des Hoysted was an Australian radio broadcaster and horse racing identity. He was a racecaller for 51 years in what is widely regarded as the golden era of the Australian turf.
Koala King was a former champion Australian Standardbred pacing horse of the 1970s and 80s who won a host of Australasian Pacers Grand Circuit and feature races including the 1980 Inter Dominion Pacing Championship at Harold Park Paceway and the 1981 A G Hunter Cup. He won a record 40 races at the old Harold Park Paceway prior to its closure. Koala King won a total of seventy eight races.
Luskin Star (1974-2002) was a Thoroughbred racehorse and winner of the Australian two-year-old Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
References
- ↑ "Johnny Tapp - Paleface Adios".
- ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 304. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- Tapp, John (1999). Tappy: Memoirs of a Race Caller. Sydney: MacMillan. p. 242. ISBN 0-330-36181-3.
