The Marburg Show for 2018 has come and gone. For the second year, the Marburg Pacing Association, Garrards Horse and Hound and the Royal George Hotel Rosewood have provided a two hour window of harness racing to add to the Saturday entertainment.
Show trotting was for many years the only form of harness racing in Queensland.
Registered racing had lapsed in the early 1930s due to a lack of public support. That stemmed, it seemed, from a lack of faith in proprietary racing with racing venues at that time largely owned and controlled by Melbourne based entrepreneur and sportsman John Wren.
Wren at one stage was a part-owner of the Courier Mail newspaper, and sole owner of Doomben, Albion Park, Deagon, Bundamba and Kedron race courses.
With no "registered racing", the harness folk turned to the district shows and Show Societies provided good money as they competed for the pacers, which were a major drawcard on the program.
The return of registered racing in the early 50's (1955 at Ipswich), did nothing to dampen the popularity of show racing.
The demise of this institution was attributed to a "clerical error" in the late 1990's, when shows were not included in an insurance policy renewal.
That was an expensive "error", as $96,000 per year was lost in the Ipswich footprint alone.
We were ably supported in our efforts to spread the harness word by the Queensland Mini-trotting and Sporting Association Inc, who provided four pony trots on the day.
Exhibition winners were Riverleigh Bart (Trent Hodges) Macs Choice (Ricky Gordon), We Can Only hope (Warren Hinze), Emargee (Ricky Gordon), Leo The Lion (Nikki Chalk) and Calvert Hotshot (Darryl Reinke).
The Marburg Pacing Association will be back next year, hopefully with a much bigger segment.
Challenging business and rewards
HARNESS can be a testing business, with no guarantee of winners or earners coming regularly no matter how hard the trainer works.
There can be long droughts, and these are more distressing if the horse team is small – one, maybe two horses for the hobbyist.
Ironbark-based Karen Schulz is one such hobbyist. She has done the hard yards in recent times, when stable star Soldier Of Fortune lost form and became hard to drive.
However, droughts break and this time the big change coincided with the purchase of an additional horse for Team Schulz.
We don't know if "Soldier" felt threatened but no sooner had the new arrival Beau Cishlom appeared than Soldier Of Fortune found winning form at Redcliffe.
Not to be denied, Beau Cishlom was first at the winning post a day later, giving Karen her first Albion Park winner in four years of training.
It's all smiles at Team Schulz where the kids pitch in with stable chores.
See, it can happen.
Handy tips
SELECTIONS for Albion Park tonight.
R1: Quinella 10-11: Casino Tommy (Madi Dux) and Anychance (K Rasmussen).
R2: E/w 6: Royal Counsel (D Graham).
R3: E/w 4: Get In The Groove (L Cain).
R4: Quinella 1-8: Sicilian Slumber (L Manzemann) and Supaliner ( D Graham).
R5: Quinella 14-15: Mach Alert (Mark Dux) and Alleluia (G Dixon).
R6: Quinella 5-9: Ruato Bay (I Ross) and Pale Bear Boo (P Diebert).
R7: Quinella 1-8: Sweet As (D Graham) and Corporal Luna (G Dixon).
R8: Quinella 5-6: Leo The Lion (G Whitaker) and Red Luck (D Graham).
R9: Box trifecta 1-2-11: Katniss (N Dawson)-Always A Jewel (A Sanderson)-Eleniark (G Dixon).
Honour board
While Chantal Turpin produced a consistent three winners to take trainer's honours for the week, there was a three-way tussle on the driver's board. Danielle McMullen emerged victorious from four wins, edging out Gary whitaker and Pete Mcmullen on three apiece. Most pleasing was Team Schulz as it gives encouragement to hang in through the flat spots. Ipswich factor: 19/47.
Albion Park, May 11: Somepartysomewhere (Danielle McMullen for Greg Franklin); Hard To Hear (Trent Dawson); Beau Cislom (Paul Diebert for Karen Schulz).
Albion Park, May 12: Opononis Bliss (Pete McMullen for Chantal Turpin).
Albion Park, May 15: Needle (GaryWhitaker for Brad Connelly); Minted Montana (Darrell Graham for Donny Smith); Jazzy Artist (Danielle McMullen for Ryan Veivers); Heavens Hint (Pete McMullen for Stewie Dickson); Proficient (Matt Elkins for Trevor Lambourn); Geronimo Beau (Trent Dawson).
Redcliffe, May 16: Life In Heaven (Hayden Barnes for Chantal Turpin); Nikki Mattgregor (Matt Elkins for Dan Russell); Come Out And Play (Gary Whitaker for Damian Shaw); Grizzly Montana (Gary Whitaker for Brett Cargill).
Albion Park, May 17: Justabit Like Mum (Danielle McMullen for Doug Lee); Somewherovarainbow (Adam Sanderson for Shannon Price); Grinvil (Narissa McMullen for Richard Hutchinson); Argyle Beach (Danielle McMullen for Chantal Turpin); RockNroll Music (Pete McMullen for Brian McCall).