Perfect driving for debut

It was a wintry day at Mildura on Friday but one that Horsham horseman Steve Blacker will not forget.

The harness-racing enthusiast not only sat in the sulky for the first time in a race – he won it in style with a horse he also owns.

Blacker, 47, took the reins with his four-yearold Bettors Delight gelding Kolovos and looked every bit accustomed to the role, controlling the tempo of the race from the spot outside the leader to coast home by 1.5 metres.

Blacker is a popular member of the trots’ Twitterati – @realmrcricket on Twitter – and congratulatory messages were quickly flowing among fellow industry participants and harness fans after he and Kolovos passed the winning post. Kolovos has now won two races from seven starts since crossing the ditch from New Zealand earlier this year and is officially trained by Blacker’s boss Aaron Dunn.

Blacker has two drives at Stawell this afternoon – Fire Official in race three for trainer Peter Matthews and Allawart Bob in the sixth for trainer Laurie Young.

Win lose or draw, it will not matter to Blacker – being part of the racing action is reward enough and Mildura on Friday last week was his ‘unbelievable, icing on the cake’.

– Cody Winnell and Tony Logan