The winners of golden sponsor draw

By Harnesslink · 19 March 2020 · 3:29 pm

Since the Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival started 34 years ago, Reg Morris has been hungry to lay his hands on one of the major two-year-old trophies that are on offer.

While he has had horses he's bred and owned contest the heats of the Gold Crown and Gold Tiara, and even had two runners qualify for a feature final, he's not been able to find success.

However, when it comes to this year's annual Bathurst Harness Racing Club carnival, Morris was assured of a link to the Gold Crown Final before the fields for the heats had even been released.

It is because his company, Apsley View Estate, won the draw to be the naming right sponsor for the Gold Crown final.

"The club is great, Danny [Dwyer] does a great job," Morris said. "It is very nice to be associated with the final.

"I have been trying to win a Gold Crown or a Gold Crown ever since it started.

"I've had two starters in the final one was Famous Fella down at the old track, the Showground, he was with Bernie Hewitt.

"He was my first horse to ever get into the Gold Crown Final, so I was pretty happy with that."

Famous Fella ran in the 2013 Gold Crown Final, placing fifth behind Allblack Stride.

Though Morris used to breed his runners, these days his hopefuls are purchased at the sales.

On Wednesday one of those purchases, a two-year-old filly called Infinity Beach, contested a heat of the Gold Tiara series. The Somebeachsomewhere x Far Too Rusty filly placed fourth, which means she will be in a consolation final instead of the major Group 1 decider.

But racing aside, Morris is looking forward to releasing the final stage of Apsley Views Estate.

"I've been doing sub-divisions at The Lagoon for close to 20 years now. This is probably the last lot of Apsley Views which are being developed at the moment," he said.

"They will be ready to hit the market in a few months."

While Andrew Speed is best know in local sporting circles for his involvement in Bathurst District Football, over the past six years he has come to learn more about the Bathurst Harness Racing Club and its annual carnival.

The interest came via his business – Speeds Landscaping. It is that business which won the draw to have naming rights for the two-year-old fillies feature, the Golds Tiara.

"I do follow it a little bit, more than I used to," he laughed.

"Since they moved to he new premises [in 2014] we've been a sponsor, we do a lot of work for them. We are happy to be associated with the Gold Crown Carnival."

By Anya Whitelaw

Reprinted with permission of The Western Advocate