Horsham tradition rolls on with stars for drivers' showdown

Some of Victoria’s finest reinsmen and women will converge on Horsham next Monday (October 5) for a harness racing tradition stretching back more than three decades.

The Noel Smith Memorial Horsham Invitational Drivers Championship returns for its 35th edition, bringing together 10 leading Victorian drivers for a six-heat battle at the Horsham track.

And while the national spotlight will be on Globe Derby Park just two days earlier for the Australian Drivers Championship, Horsham’s long-running invitational has assembled an impressive line-up of its own.

Reigning Horsham champion Jordan Leedham will return to defend the title he claimed in 2025, joined by James Herbertson, Kate Gath, Jason Lee, Chris Alford, Ryan Sanderson, Ellen Tormey, Taylor Youl, Jackie Barker and Michael Bellman.

Herbertson faces a particularly busy few days, with the Victorian star heading to South Australia representing his State in the Australian Drivers Championship at Globe Derby Park on Saturday night before returning for the Horsham showdown on Monday.

The Horsham championship events are penalty-free, with nominations closing on Wednesday, September 30.

The Horsham championship has built an extraordinary honour roll since Gaita Pullicino won the inaugural series in 1990.

The late champion Gavin Lang along with Daryl Douglas share the record with four victories apiece, while Alford has three titles to his name and has the opportunity to join them at the top of the honour roll this year.

Alford first won the championship in 1994 and added further victories in 2011 and 2017. Among this year’s other invitees, Gath, Lee, Tormey, Herbertson and Leedham have also previously taken out the title.

The series has attracted some of Australasia’s biggest names during its history, including champion New Zealand reinsman Dexter Dunn, who won back-to-back editions in 2012 and 2013, while interstate drivers were regular participants when the championship was conducted on a national basis.

Tasmanian Ricky Duggan’s victory in 2016 demonstrated the reach of the event, with that year’s field including representatives from across Australia and New Zealand.

The championship honours the late Noel Smith, a long-serving Horsham and District Harness Racing Club committee member, past president and delegate who made an enormous contribution to harness racing locally and across Victoria. Smith was awarded a Harness Racing Victoria Distinguished Service Medal in March 1994 just three months before he passed away.

The invitational has endured as one of the Horsham club’s signature events, with only two interruptions across its history – the Equine Influenza period and COVID.

Long-time sponsor Carbine Chemicals has supported the championship since its inception, initially through the late Ray “Rocky” Baker and now his son Jensen, maintaining an association stretching back to the first running in 1990.

This year’s meeting will feature six ratings-exempt championship events, along with four support races, providing a 10-race program for the club’s feature day.

Leedham will return with fond memories after producing a remarkably consistent performance to claim last year’s championship, recording a win and four thirds from his five drives. He finished with 43 points to defeat Jason Lee on 38, with Glen Craven and Michael Stanley sharing third on 36.

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink