Junee driver wins unique harness double across two different countries in four days
Junee harness racing driver Cameron Hart has completed a rare feat by winning two races in different countries in the same week.
On Friday night, Hart piloted unbackable favourite, Jason Grimson-trained Swayzee, to take line honours at the $60,000 Cherry City Cup in Young.
Hart and Swayzee then boarded a plane to New Zealand on Sunday, where the pair defended their NZ Cup at Addington in Christchurch on Tuesday.
Both driver and horse faced two flights, the first from Sydney to Auckland and then a connecting flight to Christchurch ahead of the biggest day in New Zealand’s harness racing scene.
Part owner and trainer Jason Grimson later confirmed that Swayzee’s connections, including fellow owners Boots Properties Racing Pty Ltd, L F Drake and N H Jackson, paid a $28,000 fee to ensure that the champion trotter could defend its title.
The second consecutive NZ Cup win adds to Hart’s illustrious record, which includes 12 Group 1 wins across his career in the sport.
One wonders what the likes of Maurice Holmes or Roy Purdon would think if you even tried explaining those set of circumstances to them. Forget what you ever thought to be the ‘traditional’ Cup preparation, because what Grimson, Swayzee and his pilot Cameron Hart just achieved defies logic.
18 months ago in his final start for champion trainer, Tim Butt, Swayzee ran last in a mr30-70 race at Redcliffe. This week he became the 18th horse in the 121 year history of the Cup to win the great race twice and the 17th to go back to back. Unbelievable. Yet, we witnessed it with our own eyes.
Furthermore, at the thick end of a gruelling 3200m, the six year old gelding having worked mid race to find the lead, summonsed the stamina to fight back and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, after a gallant Don’t Stop Dreaming (Bettor’s Delight) and Blair Orange headed the Australian halfway down the straight.
After galloping away on dispatch, Swayzee settled quickly for Cameron Hart but spotted the favoured New Zealand duo of Dont Stop Dreaming and Merlin (Art Major) close to 14 cart lengths as they went past the post two laps to go with the kiwi pair making light work of the standing start to lead/trail early doors.
Hart set Swayzee alight past the winning post and worked forward three wide where he found an uncontested lead from Orange and Don’t Stop Dreaming.
With the rest of the contending drivers seemingly forgetting they were racing for a million dollars, or perhaps deterred by the fighting talk of the defending champions in the press, Swyazee proceeded to pace the next mile with an uncontested lead. Perhaps they assumed the Grimson trained pacer would wilt under the burden of the travel and having raced only four days earlier?
In hindsight, letting a noted front runner away with soft fractionals, without a single horse moving until the 600m, might not have been the answer. What would I know, having never driven a pacer let alone a race winner.
Don’t Stop Dreaming was gallant in getting past the defending champion by half a cart length, only to have the Australian lift himself off the canvas inside the last 100m and secure a phenomenally victory by half a length.
“He [Don’t Stop Dreaming] definitely got past us but I know how hard this horse tries,” said Hart.
“To think I have just won two New Zealand Cups is amazing. He is an amazing horse.”
The winning time of 3:57.1 was a full four seconds outside Lazarus’ 2016 race record, but this was a record in its own right. And one would think, with a chance to become just the fourth pacer in the history of the Cup with a chance at securing three victories, the connections may well nominate a shade earlier in 2025.
– Tallon Smith
