Peter Hibberd, The Buloke Times

Over the next three weekends the Boort, Birchip and Charlton Clubs will run their feature meetings with the running of their pacing and trotting cups.

A lot of effort has gone into promotion of these days, so please go along and support these clubs.

Charlton, Last Wednesday

On a very competitive day of racing, drivers Damian Wilson and Alex Ashwood took the driving honours with each having a double.

In the last race, a horse that was only having its first race start, called Queen Lilibet, I thought was very impressive.

After looking at her breeding, I learned that her dam has had 3 foals to race, all winners. Her grand-dam had 11 foals with 10 of those winning races.

Being regally bred and with the race name of Queen Lilibet, could she ascend to the throne?

Results

Race one: It’s amazing when a horse changes stables and its form goes to a new level. Such is the case of Settle The Bill, transferred to the Damian Wilson stable and with its first start in late December; it has had 8 starts for 5 wins for Damian. At Charlton it worked around to sit outside the leader and proved too strong at the finish.

Race two: The horse with the unusual name of Quirky Character is certainly wellnamed; did plenty of things wrong yet scored by a narrow margin.

Race three: Trainer David Murphy is a regular attendee at Charlton. His trotter Beach Heaven, which has a few tricks, put it all together with a solid win. One noteable thing about this race was one of the drivers, Connor Clarke (who was unplaced), jumped in his car to drive all the way to Mildura and drove the winner of the second race and also the fourth race. That is dedication to the sport.

Race four: Another horse that changed stables is Likeable Rogue. Originally from the Riverina area in NSW, it is now with trainer Alex Ashwood. It was very impressive winning in very quick mile rate of 1.55.5 – that is very good!

Race five: Owner Len Parker from Maryborough is a very well-known owner and breeder. Many years ago, he had his first ever winner in harness racing at Charlton. Nearly all of his horses have the “Moth” in them. His winner at Charlton was Ideal Moth, which gave Damian Wilson a training and driving double. He came from well back in the field and ran exceptional closing sectionals.

Race six: Charlton trainer Michael Gadsden has certainly found the key to No Emotion, another horse which has had a stable change. With Luke Dunne driving, it has now won three races at Charlton in recent months.

Race seven: The closest finish of the day was between Surfin’ At Midnight and Monsiuer Flamel with a nose victory. Driver Alex Ashwood completed a driving double with “Surfin’s” win.

Race eight: The very heavily supported Mister Jimaringle scored an easy win. Driven by “Herby” it was back on the inside, but with some brilliant moves was able to come out wide in the straight to win.

Race nine: We might have seen a very promising debut run in Queen Lilibet.

Coming up

Boort Cup this Sunday. Local interest in both feature races Alderbaran Demi in the trotters’ cup for Michael Gadsden and Cee Cee In America in the pacing cup for Joe Thompson.

Birchip “Mallee Bull” Cups, Sunday, March 9.

This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 28 February 2025.