Suvaljko pair get the rich spoils

Prominent West Australian reinsman Shannon Suvaljko doesn't take too long to name the Northam harness racing track as his favorite-and little wonder!

And he was back there at the weekend…this time taking home the $30,000 Grafton Electrics Northam Pacing Cup.

Also grabbing the spotlight was his talented 19-year-old daughter Emily, who scored a pillar-to-post victory in the other big feature on the program.

"It was certainly an awesome day-I think I've just got the wood on Emily at the moment for the season, but probably only by one or two wins," Shannon said.

Emily, who was the leading junior driver in the State last year with 60 wins, landed Sokys Bigbullet (Modern Art-Sokyeni (Sokys Atom) for trainer Tony Svilicich in the $20,000 Village Kid Sprint.

Winning team: Shannon Suvaljko and daughter Emily (Photo Hamilton Content Creators)

It was one of the biggest wins of the youngster's career, adding to the recent Albany Cup when she scored with Culpeka (Mach Three-Tuapeka Maddy (Christian Cullen), trained by Barry Howlett.

Emily has driven over 100 winners since joining her dad in the driving ranks about 18 months ago.

The Northam Pacing Cup triumph was the third over the years for Shannon, who won it in 1991 and then again four years ago.

This time he was successful on Son Of A Tiger (American Ideal-Tiger Cher (Christian Cullen) who was one of the joint back markers on the 20-metre handicap in the 2560m Cup. After racing midfield for most of the way, Shannon moved out three-wide and three-back at the bell. He made a four-wide run on the corner and they rattled home to win.

Shannon Suvaljko took out his third Northam Pacing Cup with Son Of A Tiger (Photo Hamilton Content Creators)

"The horse did a great job and full credit goes to Matthew Scott who is an excellent trainer. Matt is actually a bit unusual in that he is dual-code, preparing a team of gallopers as well," Shannon said.

"A couple of weeks back he got a double with a pacing winner at Narrogin and then a thoroughbred win at Albany just two hours later," he said.

In addition to helping out astute trainer Peter Tilbrook with his team, Shannon is one of WA's most travelled freelancers.

He names the Northam circuit, at 820 metres and no sprint lane, as his favorite.

"Northam's an easy one-hour drive from where I live in Byford and I'm pretty much always there. But I do just love winning in the country and I try to get to Collie, Bridgetown and the others as much as possible."

Son Of A Tiger is raced by enthusiastic owner Tim Blee, who has a long association with Shannon.

"Tim had horses with Phil Coulson years ago. He went out of them for a bit and I bumped into him when he was looking to get back in the sport," Shannon said.

"I sort of recognized him but couldn't put a name to his face. In the end Tim had to remind me that he was my science teacher at secondary school!

"So, I suggested he give Matthew a try. Tim now owns probably seven or eight, so he certainly deserved to win the Pacing Cup.

"Son Of A Tiger has won seven since coming out from New Zealand. The cup was his first go for us in a standing start, but he handled it okay."

Shannon has landed 21 winners at Northam in the past 12 months. Emily is in the top four with 12 wins.

 

Terry Gange

NewsAlert PR Mildura