Similarly Harness Racing aficionados would have no difficulty in putting names to “The Puppet”, “Ginger”, “Bathurst Bulldog”, “Mr. Inter Dominion” and the initials “V.J.”
There is another – Group One Gav – a moniker earned by champion reinsman Gavin Lang, the first driver to win 5,000 races in Australasia and now after exhaustive research, it can be confirmed that Gavin indeed was, and will forever be, the first Australian driver to win 100 Group One races.
The always humble Gavin kicked off his skein of Group One victories in style, when he piloted the Graeme Johannesen trained champion True Roman to success in the 1988 Inter Dominion Trotters Final at Moonee Valley.
His 100th Group One was achieved with Delight Me in the Vicbred Super Sires final for 4YO pacing mares at Tabcorp Park (Melton) on 2nd July 2016.
Every State jurisdiction is represented in Gavin’s first 100 Group One wins – Victoria (68), New South Wales (17), Tasmania (6), South Australia (5), Queensland (3) and Western Australia (1).
The beauty of Gavin’s first 100 Group One wins was that he was never permanently tied to any leading stable and exemplified by the fact that the 100 Group One winners he drove were prepared by 24 different trainers (including himself).