Harness racing: Gus produces fairy-tale victory in New Zealand’s greatest trot

Gus and Pete McMullen blew them away in the $400,000 Renwick Farms Dominion at Addington on Tuesday. Photo / Ajay Berry

Harness racing had its Cool Runnings moment in the $400,000 Renwick Farms Dominion Trot at Addington tonight.

You might remember the 1993 movie based on the true story about the first Jamaican bobsled team to go to the Winter Olympics.

Well, that was kind of what Queensland trotter Gus did in New Zealand’s greatest trot race on Tuesday.

Except unlike the lads from Jamaica, Gus won.

The former rogue whose brain has often struggled to keep up with his legs smashed many of Australasia’s best trotters after a surging mid-race run that carried him from near last to first and ultimately an effortless victory.

This is not supposed to be how it works. Queensland does a lot of things well; producing great trotters isn’t one of them.

Actually, producing trotters at all isn’t one of them.

The Sunshine State’s harness racing industry is very much pacing-based and trotting plays a minor role there, more substantial than a decade or two ago when it was pure novelty value, but small-time stuff nevertheless.

Queensland had a really good trotter called Our Overanova a few years ago but the state has never had a real Grand Circuit trotting regular and never a conqueror.

Not until today and nothing like today.

Gus was actually bred and educated in New Zealand by Southland trainer Nathan Williamson, for who he has two starts for one huge win before being sold to Queensland.

He has given husband and wife team Chantal Turpin and Pete McMullen plenty of headaches since but he has now also given them the greatest win of their careers.

“We brought him over here thinking if he paid for himself it would be great,” McMullen, one of the stars of Queensland harness racing driving where he is known as “Leader Peter” for his freewheeling style, said.

“We knew how fast he was but we also realised how big the challenge was.

“When I let him go, he got around them quickly but he never came off the bit and was very strong to the line.

“It is a huge thrill for us, you don’t realise how big today is until you come here and it is something special to pull off a win like this.”

McMullen says Gus is likely to back up in the $100,000 Azap New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All on Friday, providing he comes through today’s win well, and it is hard to believe he won’t because he simply won so easily.

Mr Love added a Dominion second to his Rowe Cup runner-up prize and was very brave, while Oscar Bonavena and favourite Jilliby Ballerini headlined the hard-luck stories alongside Mighty Logan.

Oscar got trapped back in the field, always a risk for a horse usually driven for one run, and locked wheels at the top of the straight before storming into third.

For all the concerns about her manners, the favourite Jilliby Ballerini was majestic early on and got the perfect trail behind fellow Victorian in Arcee Phoenix but he surprisingly punctured when Gus strode past him at the 600m mark and took Jilliby Ballerini’s hopes with him.

She made good ground and confirmed she is well and truly up to this grade and her future looks bright, even if today will feel like the one that got away.

Mighty Logan suffered a similar fate while most of those involved in the early burns paid the price in another brutal race on harness racing’s glamour day.

But this Dominion belonged to Gus on the biggest day in Queensland trotting history.

Almost sounds like a movie.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.