And that’s three for a young man in a hurry

Ballarat trainer Zac Steenhuis is certainly a young man making his mark in a hurry in his chosen sport. Steenhuis, 20, who has been around harness racing horses for as long as he can remember, recently trained a hat trick of wins in the space of six days.

Talented junior driver Ryan Duffy was the victorious reinsman on each of the three occasions.

“Yes, I had a fantastic run with a double at Mildura on Tuesday and then we took out one of the features at Wedderburn, winning the Trotters Cup,” he said.

“I guess the pressure is on now to keep the momentum rolling along.”

The Mildura winners were Jules Peach (Julius Caesar -The Georgia Peach (McArdle), bred and owned by Phil Devereux and Ray Boldiston; and Our Summer Bay (Metropolitan-Bye The Deep South (Ok Bye), bred and raced by Steenhuis’ mother Donna.

Traveling north to Mildura, where the temperature reached a blistering 45.5c at 5pm, Steenhuis said he stopped to buy a bag of ice to cool his own drinks.

“I decided to buy nine bags and put in the float to help the horses—and I think it worked wonders,” he said.

“They got out at Birchip for a walk and didn’t have a bit of sweat, and the same applied when I reached Mildura.”

Talented square gaiter Jerichos Trumpet (Shadow Play-All In Good Time (Fake Left), probably the star of the team, was successful at the Wedderburn Cup meeting.

Steenhuis said he would now aim Jerichos Trumpet at next Sunday’s $12,000 Wangaratta Trotters Cup and, all going well, will look toward the South Australian Trotters Cup early next month.

“He has stacks of ability, but at present we just need to improve his standing start barrier manners,” Steenhuis said.

“When he blew it at Wedderburn and the leaders zipped through the first half in under a minute, I thought we can kiss this one goodbye.

“But I was sort of happy, or perhaps hopeful, when we were four wide and making ground on the second last corner. And then when he started putting in the big strides I thought ‘okay, he’s going to be right in this’.”

Steenhuis said racing Jerichos Trumpet was a big thrill as he shares ownership in the four-year-old with his uncle and aunty, Les and Marita Henderson.

“We got him at the Melbourne Gold sales. We didn’t pay a lot of money for him, so we are a fair bit in front because he’s earnt over $70,000,” Steenhuis said.

The gelding won the Group One Vicbred Platinum final as a three-year-old, but then went off the boil through a couple of mishaps.

“He has bounced back into form now with six wins from his past 13 outings, so we are back on track,” Steenhuis said.

The young trainer said it was inevitable that he was going to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather John and father Sebastian and go into harness racing.

“I talked my parents into letting me leave school halfway through Year 10 and got further experience with the likes of Mick Stanley and Peter Tonkin,” he said.

“I was helping dad out from when I was about 14 — Dad was a builder and would get home at 4pm, the same time that the school bus would drop me off, so then we’d get stuck into the horses.

“It was a great grounding, but we’d get quite competitive at times!”

After landing more than 40 winners as a driver, Steenhuis decided late last year to concentrate on the training side of things.

“I finished my plumbing apprenticeship and had a small team, and one day just decided to give harness racing a red-hot go,” he said.

“I thought if it doesn’t go well, I can always go back to plumbing, but hopefully things keep ticking along and I can stick with the horses.”

Steenhuis said he received invaluable help from Ryan Duffy and another close friend in Darby McGuigan.

“Whenever they can help me, they pop around and dad is never far away if I need a hand,” he said.

Steenhuis has about 12 in work with the majority being two-year-olds.

“In addition, there’s five or six yearlings to be broken in.  I may do them myself if I have the time because I enjoy that part of it,” he said.

Steenhuis said he was thoroughly enjoying training and not overly missing driving.

“Don’t get me wrong, I still have fond memories of my short driving career—such as landing the money on 20/1 shot Bobby Fabulous at Melton in November, 2015, when I was only 17,” he said.

“The horse was trained by dad and we took out an M0 event. It was probably my most memorable victory.

“I’m not getting itching fingers, but as they say…you never say never!”

Terry Gange

NewsAlert PR Mildura