Two Central Victorian sisters have received the best going away present imaginable for a long-planned European adventure, courtesy of some of the harness racing horses they help prepare with their dad, Glenn Bull.
Tiffany and Melissa Bull own three of their dad’s team – and two of them have saluted in the past seven days. The pair leave next Tuesday on an extended working holiday.
Bay gelding Go George Go held on for a recent narrow victory at Echuca (Oct 25) and his stablemate, roan mare Betterthanflyhigh won at Bendigo (Oct 31).
“The stakemoney certainly came at the perfect time for them – they plan to stay for at least 12 months and they’ve got 18-month working visas. It’s pretty exciting for them because they’ve never been over there,” Glenn said.
“The girls had planned to do a trip before COVID hit. So now it’s happening, and they have accommodation for the first three months just outside of London,” he said.
“They’ve got some work teed-up at a riding school and it’s a bit flexible in that they’ll be able to take time off now and again to do some travel for a week.”
Bull got Go George Go out of the barrier smartly to lead in the Mal and Lorraine Keeble, Rich River Autobody Works Pace, of $6000, at Echuca. The win was just the second by Go George Go in 31 starts, but he’s never far away and his 17 placings have taken him to earnings of over $28K in stakemoney.
In the Spring H20 Pace Heat at Bendigo, driver Sean O’Sullivan gave Betterthanflyhigh a cosy trip behind the leader and scored a half-neck victory over the stablemate, Stellar Queen (owned by Bull, rather than his daughters!)
Betterthanflyhigh will go around in the final at Bendigo next Wednesday, the girls no doubt hoping their mare can top up their travel funds a little bit more yet.
Bull, who runs a busy stable from Derrinal, about half an hour from Bendigo, is rarely seen at a harness racing meeting without one or both of his daughters, who are both competent horsewomen.
“We’re going to miss them—particularly me around the stables because I’ve got 15 horses in work which is the most I’ve had,” Bull said.
“And then at the races, the girls basically have everything organized. They harness them up and wash them afterwards. Sometimes I feel like I’m just turning up to drive!
“My wife Corinne helps out at home with the horses and we’re both going to have to do a little more now!”
The family shifted to the 100-acre Derrinal property two years ago and have made an impact.
“It’s certainly been the most successful time I’ve had in the sport. The place we bought was used for horse breeding so the main thing we had to do was put in a track,” Bull said.
Last season was a standout for the stable with 25 wins and 66 placings for stakemoney just shy of $200,000. And this year Bull is on target for a similar tally, so far having 18 wins and 63 placings.
Bull, who has driven 127 winners and trained 114, first started going to the trots with some friends who were involved in the sport. Eventually this led him to start training horses, and then race driving.
The couple operated a chicken farm at Lake Boga, near Swan Hill, in northwest Victoria for 30 years. They had more than 12,000 birds when they sold in 2013. A bad back saw Bull decide on a sea change, and they purchased a motel in Tuncurry on the NSW mid-north coast, 90 kms from Port Macquarie.
He didn’t plan on having horses, but when one he’d leased out was sent home, he quickly had to work out how to train them on a busy beach.
“It was difficult to do jog work so anytime I worked them they were really doing pacework—they enjoyed it and once they were trialing and racing, they seemed fit enough.”