Pure Steel

Famously Stood in for his good mate and top horseman Charlie Hunter for the 1975 Interdominion , when Charlie was injured in a race during the heats.
John Not only winning the Trotting Grand Final steering Castleton's Pride , but stormed to Victory with the mighty Young Quinn as well in the Pacers Grand Final. 
A great double for Charlie and John. hard to believe it was just over half a century ago now?. time flies. even for the champions. John was 27 years old at the time. But achieved a lifetime Dream there at Auckland all those years ago. RIP John .  another fabulous NZ horseman of all time. 
 

Was in Sydney in early Dec . Loved it too . 
The box seat is very good but disappointing nothing was mentioned .
They had time to interview Kate Coppins which was great . But they should show respect for the people who dedicated their lives to Harness Racing like John and his family did .

The Box Seat… Can be good viewing…. Can be informative…. But only talk about the same people…. Mr Langton deserved a mention… Big contribution to racing…. His son trained here in Sydney….

Couldn't believe what he paid . I hope you got plenty Double R 

Thanks PS.
A credit to Bernie, and Michelle for their time, and patience to get him back on track.

Halberg has plenty of respect. Might be they're a bit gun-shy of Bernie driving it himself to put money on it ? 😁😉 
great to see him get the win for Double R , Bernie and co though. Nice tipping Charlie !! 🏆🍻

Halberg has plenty of respect. Might be they're a bit gun-shy of Bernie driving it himself to put money on it ? 😁😉 
great to see him get the win for Double R , Bernie and co though. Nice tipping Charlie !! 🏆🍻

Bloody shocking decision. The protest should have been upheld. The winner impeded Ninja twice, whose momentum was badly checked at a crucial time. B. Melham made no attempt to straighten up. He gets fined for whip use. And I think he also checked Memo in the running. 
And in Race 4 where Jason Collets horse was brought down, thankfully horse and rider ok, there was no suspension for that example of careless riding .In my opinion E. Lang very lucky. Strangely, no stewards vision available for that race.
 

Agree. An illogical decison. The margin should be irrelevant, certainly secondary to the chance of the affected horse winning the race. Would more interference make a greater margin, thus provide more vindication in retaining the first horse? It appeared that Ninja was significantly unbalanced by interference and, as anybody who has seen more than two races should know, it takes time for horses to regain momentum.

Famously Stood in for his good mate and top horseman Charlie Hunter for the 1975 Interdominion , when Charlie was injured in a race during the heats.
John Not only winning the Trotting Grand Final steering Castleton's Pride , but stormed to Victory with the mighty Young Quinn as well in the Pacers Grand Final. 
A great double for Charlie and John. hard to believe it was just over half a century ago now?. time flies. even for the champions. John was 27 years old at the time. But achieved a lifetime Dream there at Auckland all those years ago. RIP John .  another fabulous NZ horseman of all time. 
 

Famously Stood in for his good mate and top horseman Charlie Hunter for the 1975 Interdominion , when Charlie was injured in a race during the heats.
John Not only winning the Trotting Grand Final steering Castleton's Pride , but stormed to Victory with the mighty Young Quinn as well in the Pacers Grand Final. 
A great double for Charlie and John. hard to believe it was just over half a century ago now?. time flies. even for the champions. John was 27 years old at the time. But achieved a lifetime Dream there at Auckland all those years ago. RIP John .  another fabulous NZ horseman of all time. 
 

Yep guys, all it takes is one great racehorse, the bug is caught 😆 an boom harness enthusiast for life....I neva saw Quinn race my ol mum did, just watchin her face when she talked about him was enough to tell me he was summit special....
 
Cheers Iraklis

Famously Stood in for his good mate and top horseman Charlie Hunter for the 1975 Interdominion , when Charlie was injured in a race during the heats.
John Not only winning the Trotting Grand Final steering Castleton's Pride , but stormed to Victory with the mighty Young Quinn as well in the Pacers Grand Final. 
A great double for Charlie and John. hard to believe it was just over half a century ago now?. time flies. even for the champions. John was 27 years old at the time. But achieved a lifetime Dream there at Auckland all those years ago. RIP John .  another fabulous NZ horseman of all time. 
 

Famously Stood in for his good mate and top horseman Charlie Hunter for the 1975 Interdominion , when Charlie was injured in a race during the heats.
John Not only winning the Trotting Grand Final steering Castleton's Pride , but stormed to Victory with the mighty Young Quinn as well in the Pacers Grand Final. 
A great double for Charlie and John. hard to believe it was just over half a century ago now?. time flies. even for the champions. John was 27 years old at the time. But achieved a lifetime Dream there at Auckland all those years ago. RIP John .  another fabulous NZ horseman of all time. 
 

Famously Stood in for his good mate and top horseman Charlie Hunter for the 1975 Interdominion , when Charlie was injured in a race during the heats.
John Not only winning the Trotting Grand Final steering Castleton's Pride , but stormed to Victory with the mighty Young Quinn as well in the Pacers Grand Final. 
A great double for Charlie and John. hard to believe it was just over half a century ago now?. time flies. even for the champions. John was 27 years old at the time. But achieved a lifetime Dream there at Auckland all those years ago. RIP John .  another fabulous NZ horseman of all time. 
 

Don't you mean the janitor cleaned up.

He normally does Shad 😆 

That's so sad .  I worked for John for nearly two years when I was 18 . Grant Mcleod and Peter Mounce were also working there then .
He was such an awesome guy . He organized my trials licence and even when I had given my notice let me drive Dingle Dell at the trials . He also gave me a couple of drives in Junior races when I was working in another stable . 
I learnt a lot from John , he was such a talented driver , had a heart of gold and was so good to me .
His wife Jenny is Geoff Martins sister if you didn't know and he is a great guy as well , the whole family is .
RIP J Dub . I will never forget you thx for everything .
 

"Hillbilly Blues" has just blown me away. May be our trotting future. 

Until they all meet "Keayang Zahara" 🤣
I think "Susan Is Her Name" and "Jilliby Ballerini" are probably better than any of ours too. "Bet'N'Win" hasn't come on like I thought he would, and "Old Oscar" and "Muscle Mountain" both look past their best, which, for both, has been outstanding. 

Nice horses Charlie , you added in the best one IMO,   GTC as he could go on to topple all these. (RP very hard to beat though) 
Got The Chocolates , who you tipped a few times last year and he didn't let you down either. Has the potential to be the Star 4 year-old this year 🏆 and go on and challenge Republican Party in some big ones later in the year as can 'hang Tough' and race a bit like most of the good Aussie raiders, without cover. 
Pinseeker had a crack at the Interdominion last year , but pulled hard and choked down I think , in a heat. was quite amusing watching him race 6 lengths in front of a field that contained Leap To Fame and Don Hugo though . I thought it was brave kiwi driving for a moment 😅. but alas he didn't finish the race and was withdrawn from the series. Need 'RP' and the 'Choc's' to turn up this year ? give NZ a great double chance? .  
The 2 NZ trotters got 2nd and 3rd in the Interdominion Trot Grand Final though. BEt N Win and Oscar B (the subsequent NZ Cup week double winner 'GUS' was only 4th in the Final) . so The kiwi's aren't too far off the pace. 

Owners are crazy if they don't send him to Grimson - he would sort him out and win some serious money. Will only get scraps over here.

I have to say our crop of top horses is really poor . Akuta , Merlin , RP apart from them , there is nothing really to get excited about . 
Marketplace , GTC , The Lazarus Effect , Better Knuckle Up , Jeremiah are really the only ones showing promise

the problem with Pinseeker is he does too much wrong , especially pulling very hard at times. 
therefore he only won One race last year as a 5 year old , in what should of been his peak season? . One race Win makes him look very average actually.
nice start to his 6 year old year with a Win on New Years Day , but once the distance gets out to mile and half + , he'll struggle once again.  (manners) 
 best thing he could do, is race at Menangle where they could just 'Cut him loose' like they do with so many of these over powerful types.  and they have races that suit All through the whole year. running a mile to a mile and a quarter. 
 

Won't feature much in NZ - only place for him is in Aussie