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RACING Get the TABtouch AHEADWA advantage Harness Racing February 2018 Giddy-Up Expert ratings and speed maps SuperPick Choose your special Live Racing Watch Sky Racing live Download TABtouch today. Available online only. Giddy-Up and Live Vision available to active account holders only. Excludes NSW, VIC SOHO TRIBECA & SA residents. Fixed Odds only. See TABtouch.com.au for full terms and conditions. Gamble responsibly. 2018 TABTOUCH WA PACING CUP Call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au. Image supplied by Gloucester Park/Scott Hamilton Media ARE YOU RETIRING YOUR HORSE FROM RACING? DO YOU NEED HELP FINDING YOUR RETIRED RACEHORSE A NEW HOME IN THE EQUESTRIAN WORLD OR AS A PLEASURE HORSE? OFF THE TRACK CAN HELP YOU! Forward us a good photo and details of your horse and we will advertise the horse for for you on WA’s most popular horse selling website - Cavalletti Classifieds at no cost to you. We will forward the ad and details of the horse onto all our Equestrian contacts and WA Equestrian groups & clubs within WA. This will enhance the chances of your horse finding the right home sooner. All horses will be advertised at an agreed price ONO. Horses will NOT be advertised for free. Colts will not be advertised, they must be gelded Make your bet matter before advertised. Bet with TABtouch and a portion of every dollar you spend goes back into the WA racing industry. Sharon Joyce Equine Welfare Officer - Off The Track 70 Grandstand Road ASCOT WA 6104 Direct: (08) 9445 5146 Mobile: 0438 746 487 Proudly supporting local racing. Email: [email protected] rwwa.com.au Contents HARNESS RACING DEPARTMENT Racing Manager: Barry Hamilton Chief Handicapper: Warren Wishart 14 Hasler Road, Osborne Park WA 6017 Driving Master: Trevor Warwick Mobile: 0434 609 604 Trainers’ Service Centre Phone: (08) 9445 5267* Fax: (08) 9445 3056 24hr Nominations Service (08) 9445 5268* * Note all incoming and outgoing calls are recorded Email: [email protected] Office Hours:7.30am to 4.00pm Monday to Friday STEWARDS DEPARTMENTS General Manager Integrity: Denis Borovica Phone: (08) 9445 5427 Deputy Chief Steward: Rhys Chappell 70 Grandstand Road, Ascot, WA 6104 Phone: (08) 9445 5177 Fax: (08) 9477 5215 Email: [email protected] Investigator: Geoff Johnson 0408 843 560 RWWA INTEGRITY Integrity Recorded Message Service: 9445 5565 Email: [email protected] Image courtesy of Gloucester Park/Scott Hamilton Media LICENSING, REGISTRATIONS & STAKES Winning connections with 2018 WA Pacing Cup Champion Soho Tribeca 14 Hasler Road Osborne Park WA 6017 Email: [email protected] 14 Hasler Road Osborne Park WA 6017 Telephone: (08) 9445 5558 Facsimile: (08) 9445 5586 Email: [email protected] Forms can be found at www.rwwa.com.au RACING & WAGERING WA HEAD OFFICE Features 14 Hasler Road Osborne Park WA 6017 02 Vale Russell Roberts (08) 9445 5333 fax (08) 9244 5914 04 2018 APG Yearling Sales e-mail [email protected] web www.rwwa.com.au 05 Community TAB 06 Pinjarra Paceway RACING AHEAD WA Editorial, Advertising & Subscriptions 07 WASBA News Suzy Jackson 09 Race Dates Phone: (08) 9445 5371 10 WA Feature Races 2017/18 Email: [email protected] Racing & Wagering Western Australia 14 Hasler Road Osborne Park WA 6017 NEXT EDITION DEADLINE: Friday February 16, 2018 All advertisements published in Racing Ahead WA Magazine are the responsibility of the person, company or advertising agency which submitted them for publication. The publisher does not accept any responsibility for the text of any advertisement. All persons and advertising agencies submitting advertisements are reminded of their necessity to comply with the provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 and any other relevant legislation (including the Rules of Racing) applicable to the subject of matter of such advertisement. The publisher carefully checks all material prior to publication. However, the publisher and its employees do not warrant the accuracy of such material nor its compliance with relevant legislation. Copyright of articles and photographs in Racing Ahead WA Magazine remains with individual contributors and may not be reproduced without permission. RACING AHEAD HARNESS - February 1 Russell Roberts with driver Ted Demmler after one of Pure Steel's Hunter Cup wins Vale Russell Roberts Article by Alan Parker Former leading owner Russell Roberts who passed away following Russell excelled at most sports and in his teenage years he became a battle with cancer on December 23rd. a top-flight cyclist at a time when professional cycling was a big sport in Perth. Russell Walter Roberts was born on 5th July 1933 although strangely his birth notice in The West Australian that week read Russell, and his older brothers John and Roy, were all members of “On July 5th, at Miss Harvey’s Private Hospital, Bulwer Street, the State’s strongest club – the Midland Junction Cycle Club and all Perth, to Mr and Mrs F C Roberts, Gingin – a son (Russell Frank) excelled. both well”. It is worth noting that prizemoney at the annual Labour Day Sports Russell’s father was Frank Roberts and one can only surmise that Carnival in Northam in 1951 was in excess of £1000 and Russell was between the time of the notice in the newspaper and registration a regular winner at the carnival both as a junior and senior rider. of the birth that his wife had a say in the name of their son. In addition to the prizemoney there were always bookmakers Russell’s mother was Agnes Clark before her marriage and present which one suspects may have interested Russell more than her uncle Walter Clark was a leading owner and breeder of the actual prizemoney – he always liked a bet. Standardbreds. Russell Roberts also learned to box courtesy of his father who was He was better known as Watty Clark and he bred more than 300 somewhat horrified when he found out that Russell was about to trotting winners in WA including four WA Derby winners in Jack enter the ring in a fight – his father had taught him to box purely as Oro, Bobbie Oro, Happy Mint and King Aflame. He also bred the a means of self-defence. fourth dam of Norms Daughter and one of the great pacers of the He started out his working life with trucks and a sandpit and then sixties in Mercedes began investing in a number of hotels and the stock-market where Young Russell Roberts was a student at Perth Modern School he got in on the ground floor of the Poseidon boom. where one of his classmates was Phil Coulson who was just three While he was extremely successful as a businessman Russell’s true months older than Russell. 2 February - RACING AHEAD HARNESS Vale Russell Roberts passion was horses whether as a bookmaker or as an owner and trainer. He began racing pacers in the late 1960s when his wife Shirley raced a horse called Belroy and then James Eden with Fred Kersley as trainer. James Eden won some 35 races and when Russell and Shirley went with James Eden to the 1973 Sydney Inter Dominion they decided to go to the Yearling Sales. It was a fateful decision as Roberts took an instant liking to a nuggetty colt that was to become the country’s best pacer and spent just $2400 to buy him. Some years later Roberts recalled the day vividly. “I liked his pedigree as at the time the Adios stallions were all the go and this colt was a grandson of an Inter Dominion winner. He was also very athletic and caught the eye”, he said in an interview for the 2007 WA Racing Hall of Fame. Named Pure Steel after his first choice of name, Toledo, was rejected the son of Toledo Hanover won 68 races and $915,302 with 11 Group One races including four WA Pacing Cups, three AG Hunter Cups, South Australian Cup, Fremantle Cup and Miracle Mile. Including Pure Steel, Russell Roberts raced the winners of some Russell just told Shinn to drive him like I tell you and he will win and 313 races between 1970 and 1998 including the 1982 Inter “if you don’t I will kick your backside so hard you won’t sit down Dominion winner Rhett’s Law and the 1973 WA Pacing Cup winner for a week” . Local Product. Shinn went away and came back five minutes later and asked As a WA Turf Club bookmaker Russell Roberts liked a punt – in fact Russell to have a thousand on Steelo for him. With 59 bookmakers one could say he loved a punt. on course it wasn’t hard to get the extra money on. In 1976 he went within a whisker of sending half the country’s Shinn drove Pure Steel exactly as instructed and although he didn’t bookmakers to the wall when a massive plunge on Pure Steel just really need a crack with the whip, Roberts understood the pressure missed when the horse finished second to Carclew in that year’s on the 18yo with the driver’s own money at stake. Inter Dominion Final in Adelaide. Apart from Pure Steel other good winners that raced in Russell Not deterred, later that same year Russell decided to have another Roberts’ name included Local Product (19 wins including WA Pacing go as he masterminded a successful plunge with Pure Steel in that Cup, Mount Eden Sprint and Inter Dominion heat), Ex Adios (17 year’s Kilmore Cup. wins), Desert Patrol (16 wins), Rhett’s Law (15 wins), Rummin (15 wins) and Spangle Black (12 wins including WA Oaks).

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