All Time Favourite Harness Horse
 

Who is your all time favourite harness horse and why?

For me it's hard to split. Blacks a Fake, Elsu and Golden Reign are 3 that spring to mind. If pressured for one i'd have to say Blacks a Fake. Until last season l probably would have said Elsu but winning 3 interdoms in a row and the way he won the Hunter this year were breathtaking wins.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples opinions.

My recent favourite harness horse is Robin Hood. Big Heart and great racer. My all time favorite would be Westburn Grant saw him race in the flesh at Gloucester Park in 1991 Benson and Hedges Cup beating Village Kid, Sinbad Bay, Thorate, It's Motor Power...etc.

I've got to agree with you on Robin Hood, he's all heart. Peter Tonkin did an amazing job to rehabilitate him after all the injuries he had as a young horse and the troubles he had with quarter cracks leading up to his best win (in my opinion) the 2007 Victoria Cup beating Smokin Up and Sting Lika Bee. Imagine if he had have stayed injury free he could have been anything.

As for Westburn Grand i'm sad to say l didn't start following harness until 1993 when l was 15 so l can't comment on him and others of his time unfortunately. It's a shame because l missed a great era of harness racing and l would have loved to have seen horses the calibre of him, Poppy and Maori's Idol in the flesh.

Must say My fav would have to be 'Blacks a Fake'. Such a tough horse!!

But i do really like 'Flashing Red'...tons of talent and guts to match!!

And a couple of others i really like are Sting Lika Bee and recently Lombo Pocket Watch.

Lombo Pocket Watch is in the top 2 three year olds l have ever seen the other one being Courage Under Fire. Very hard to split the two although l would say the opposition CUF beat l rate higher than the opposition LPW had to contend with.

SLB and Flashing Red, two super horses who just got better with age. Numerous Group 1's between the two of them. My favourite wins of the two would be Flashing Red's NZ Cup where he lead for most of the race, Winforu took the lead off him with 400 to go and he came off the inside and ground Winforu into the ground in a 55 last half.

As for the Bee you couldn't go past his Hunter Cup win in 07. Coming from near last of the back of the train and storming down the straight to win, one of the great Hunter Cup moments.

My current fav...Lombo Pocket Watch...
My past fav...Paleface Adios...
240 Starts:
108 Wins
43 Seconds
26 Thirds

My fav "local" horse..."The Dopey Prince "

My fav sire...STRAPHANGER USA


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Spent a lot of my youth over on the "ledger" at Harold Park, saw a few Miracle Miles and an Interdominian there. Favourites for memory, I saw the beautiful brown "Gammalite", Koala King, Gundary Flyer, Garry's Advice, Popular Alm, the old veteran "Double Agent", thers a few more but the memory is fading. Shame as the trots have lost it aura now.

My favourite was the Victorian "Gammalite", always honest and tough.

great stuff zoe,
i my self use to watch them from the top of the hill near the police boys club until i won my price for a hot dog as a youngster.

my favs were Village kid,bag limit,goldrush girl,rowleyella,thorate

I've never been right into the trots, but I remember years ago when the ABC televised the legs of the double from Harold Park on a Friday night. I used to have a bet for an interest so I could watch them go around. I would have to say my favourite was Friendly Footman as I was on him when he won the Miracle Mile (I think) at around 10-1.

You can't beat a really good night like Victoria Cup night at the Valley. Hunter Cup during the day just doesn't have the same feeling about it as it did when it was held at night.

Kinda biased because we own him but Kyema Kid!
I remember the Interdominion 2000 where he beat Courage Under Fire. I was only 9 but damn it was good.

The old codger is in our back paddock, too bad his knees went on him.:(

Favourite horse
 

My favourite horse would have to be sparkling melody she isnt very popular but was pretty successful, she would probably be my favourit because she was my grandfathers horse but she had heart and loved to race but was injured during most of racing career and had to retire due to smashing a bone in her leg but is now a mother of a 1yr old and a foal born a few weeks agao

Both my greyhound interest and my 'trots' interest go back almost 50 years. There have been so many great pacers over that time, horses that had, to use a word mentioned above by one of the other members, aura. They captured the imagination of the public. There were 3 wondeful pacers in the early 1960s: Caduceus, James Scott and Cardigan Bay. They came along in that order with some overlap between the latter two. Both James Scott and Cardigan Bay went to the USA (not sure about Caduceus) to represent Australia and NZ, respectively, against the best in the world and importantly they were victorious. Not the greatest pacer I have ever seen but relative to his time, the fastest, is Mount Eden. His Miracle Mile win after doing an awful lot wrong was incredible. My understanding is that Johnny Tapp also rates this as the greatest Miracle Mile win ever.

ohhh none of mine will go down in history as champions but they were good to my pocket nicholas branch,the phoneix, rufus young blood, its nero's fiddle, noppy kiosk,

Great to See Robin Hood get the cash tonight at Harold Park. Very happy because i had couple of dollars on him at $18.00. Well done to owners, Trainer and Driver. cheers dougie :)

Awesome training performance from Peter Tonkin. The way he has been able to get this horse back time after time from numerous setbacks has been amazing. He (Robin Hood) would be a deserving winner alongside the Victoria Cup he has also won.

haha my favourite at the moment is paleface bert.... hes not very successful, but i want him when he finishes racing lol. James Matthew was also amazing to watch as a 2 year old, swear that horse had an extra gear:p. but of course village kid would be my favourite of all time

Lombo Pocket Watch, Melpark Major. Current favourite.
Cocky Raider, Manaroa, Paleface Addios. Past favourites.

coops

Noopy Kiosk !! I use to go to Moonee Valley Harness every Saturday without fail as a youngster as my mum and her sister met there every week as it was central to their addresses. (It's what first got me into the Racing game) I use to love watching Noopy come off 50m+ circle the field with 2 laps to go, go about 20m in front and just keep going. By far my favorite to watch... I loved Noopy...

I've always wanted a huge Print/Picture of him to have on my wall but I wouldn't know where to look or who to contact.

VaD

Vad mate, Noopy was a great orse. Like you said, a wonder to watch.
My son has a winning photo of Noopy hung in his lounge room.

coops

I would have to say Popular Alm by a short half head to Blacks A Fake, with Golden Reign a nose away in third.

Blossom Lady (NZ) is the greatest Mare I have ever seen.

Also another one has come to mind...short career, but what about Baltic Eagle??

Cocky Raider beating Lucky Creed at Harold Park coming from the rear of the field on the home turn and stopping Lucky Creed from breaking the Austrailasian record for 17 straight wins. That was the only time that Cocky Raider ever lined up against Lucky Creed.

coops

noopy kiosk was the best young trotter i have ever seen.And as a person who had no interest at all in any type of horse racing i was in a tab putting footy tab on and glanced up at tv screen seeing a horse nearly the length of the straight winning a race.the commentator of the race described the horse as champion trotter noopy kiosk.from that moment on i watched all of his races.I am now obsessed with harness racing and love to see the freakishly talented ones.knight pistol,lyell creek,shakamaker,maoris idol,express post ,manifold bay,and lately blacks a fake,safari and potentially a horse who has only 1 weakness.kicking its watering tin,melpark major.

Village Kid the best.
Pure Steel, Mount Eden, San Simeon, Preux Chevalier, Jack Morris, Baltic Eagle, Im TheMightyQuinn all next best.
Special mention to the likes of Morgan James, Sinn Fein, Norms Daughter,The Falcon Strike, Jay Bee's Fella, Black Irish, Satinover all grand old campaigners.