'Salty' is one tough old dude

When it comes to resilience, West Australian trotter Earl Harbour, aka "Salty", is head and shoulders above the rest.

The rising 14-year-old competed in his 400th race start when he went around in the $6000 G & S Atkins Contracting Trot at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon.

Earl Harbour NZ (Earl-Swell Harbour (Sundon) is trained by Margaret Hewton at Pinjarra, who races the old boy on lease.

"We only finished seventh, but he went okay because we had to start off the tough backmark of 60 metres behind," reinsman Nigel Johns said.

"The plan is to keep him going until the end of the season, and then it will be compulsory retirement under the age policy of WA racing," he said.

"There's already a home lined up for him-I think he's likely to be groomed as a cart horse that takes tourists around a winery."

Earl Harbour is a Kiwi-bred gelding who got his career underway in the best possible way with a victory on March 11, 2011. He followed up with a few placings and after 11 starts, made his way across "the Ditch" to Australia.

"He raced in New South Wales and Victoria, before finding his way to the west, and he's done pretty well in each State over the years," Johns said.

Johns, who has 10 in work at Waroona, between Pinjarra and Harvey, 110 kms south of Perth, said Christine Germain, a sister of his partner Deborah Woodley, bought the trotter for $12,000.

"Chris has done very nicely because although she hasn't owned him from the very start, Earl Harbour has won 21 races and 90 placings for more than $243,000," he said.

The square-gaiter ran four placings in NSW in early 2012 including a gallant second at Menangle in a classy field.

Earl Harbour was then sent down to Victoria to renowned Great Western trainer Peter Manning and he blossomed there, being prepared on the legendary big sandy track, which features hill climbs.

He won at his first start in his new State, driven by Keith Pratt at Bendigo in the 2012 Veteran Drivers' Challenge on November 3. He ran a second placing at Melton (driven by the late Gavin Lang), and then saw a purple patch of six wins, bobbing up at Stawell (two wins), Horsham, Terang, Ballarat and Bendigo, with the driving honors shared by Kerryn Manning (four wins), Matt Craven and Greg Sugars.

Earl Harbour then went over the Nullabor Plain into Western Australia in late 2013 when purchased by Christine. He was trained and driven by Johns and after a few placings, the combination landed the money at Perth's Gloucester Park on November 29, 2013.

Since then they've had at least a handful of wins at Pinjarra and there's also been victories at Bunbury and Gloucester Park, as well as a massive number of placings. Along the way, Salty has claimed Trotter of the Year titles at both Bunbury and Pinjarra.

"There have been quite a number of drivers who have sat behind the horse over the years-one has been my partner Deborah's son Morgan who is one of WA's best reinsmen," Johns said.

Johns said Margaret Hewton, who helps them out on racedays, was wanting a horse "to tinker around with".

Margaret let her harness racing licence lapse when she decided to give the gallops a go and part of being re-licensed required her to have a horse in work.

"She had a couple a real problem horse that she was mucking about with, but ideally she really needed a nice horse," Johns said.

"Because she is such a great help for us, we gave her Earl Harbour, who is absolutely bombproof, to train in her name. He's just perfect when it comes to floating and shoeing. He hasn't a vice in the world.

"When they took away the 10-start drop-back rule, that made it hard for the old horse, like a lot of others. But we'll keep going and you never know..!"

 

Terry Gange

NewsAlert PR Mildura