She's only small in stature but Brighton 22-year-old Taylor Ford is fast making a big name for herself in harness racing.
Not only is she firmly established in the top 10 drivers in the state but she trains a handy team of horses that could soon almost double in size.
At Mowbray on Friday night, Ford added the BOTRA claiming novice drivers' series to her growing list of achievements.
Two polished winning drives on Christian Jaz and Estelle and a second on Proficient gave her an easy victory in the four-race series.
We could handle up to 25 horses.
Trainer-driver Taylor Ford
Already on her CV was a win in last year's Youngbloods Challenge, the state's premier series for drivers under 23.
Despite her young age, Ford has been driving for six years during which time she's helped out various family members with their training.
About 12 months ago, she decided to get a licence of her own and now has 15 horses in work.
She's had 16 winners and 23 placegetters from her 117 runners this season.
"We could handle up to 25 horses – we've bought a new block on another property and are building new stables," she said.
"There will be eight boxes and 12 yards to go with the seven stables and five yards we have already."
Ford rates Sunday night's Hobart winner The Thug as the best of her current team.
The Thug didn't endear himself to punters when he first arrived from Victoria and, for a while, Ford wasn't a huge fan either.
But he's now won three races for the stable and earned almost $23,000.
"We worked out that he had to be driven like the worst horse in the race – let him drop out and save him for the last crack at them," she said.
DEVONPORT will gets it first harness meeting since the shutdown a month earlier than scheduled after a calendar reshuffle.
The Mowbray meeting set down for Sunday September 6 has been moved to the following Wednesday night to take advantage of a Sky 1 slot vacated by Redcliffe where the track is under maintenance.
The September 6 slot has now been allocated to Devonport which originally wasn't due to resume racing until October 9.
The one hiccup is the impact the change will have on two-year-old feature races – the $15,000 Golden Slipper at Mowbray will now be only four days before the heats of the $20,000 Sweepstakes in Hobart.
LATROBE reinsman Gareth Rattray has moved to second on the drivers' premiership after a quartet of wins in Hobart. He has 52 for the season, two behind Rohan Hillier.
The 10-time premiership winner was successful on the Ben Yole-trained Spot Eight and My Ultimate Major, Scooterwillrev for Craig Hayes and Our Yankee Ginga for Marc Butler.
Greg Mansfield