VETERAN harness trainer-driver-breeder Fred Barker doesn’t spend a lot of time driving in races these days but in Launceston on Sunday night he scored a win that meant a whole lot more than most of his previous victories.
Barker partnered his three-year-old Buck Major to a stirring win in the Cliff Robins Memorial Pace, a race named in honour of one of his best friends with whom he raced and bred horses for over 30 years.
“Our association went back to Elphin (now defunct race track and training complex) in the late 1970s when Cliff had a horse called Modern Tye that he couldn’t get going,” Barker said.
“He asked me if I’d have a go and it went from there.
“He was a great friend and a great owner and it’s an honour to win his race,” he said.
Buck Major had been threatening to win a race and while the gelding is not usually driven by Barker he opted to take the sit on Sunday night.
“It was the horse’s last chance to win a three-year-old race and I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny,” he said.
“If he had got beaten then I would have had nobody to blame but myself.
“He’s been racing well but has been a victim of bad barriers.
“I honestly thought that had he drawn barrier one tonight he would have started a $1.30 chance,” he said.
As it was Buck Major drew gate 11 which was why punters shied away from him and sent him around at the lucrative odds of $16.80.
But Barker was able to secure a good position midrace and when he called on the bay gelding for the supreme effort in the home straight he responded well to go on and score by a neck from Will be Doc with Artistic Place over two metres away third.