24 November 2016
AMANDA RANDO | @Amanda_Rando
HE has driven in races against greats like Paleface Adios and at the age of 83 Norman Warland is still training winners.
Just last week the Douglas Park harness racing mentor snared a winner with his mare Just Tootsie at Tabcorp Park Menangle and the mare won again at the very same track on Tuesday.
Warland bred Just Tootsie and the seven-year-old pacer has won 11 races and has pocketed $79,575 in stakes along the way.
“She bobs up with a win every now and then,” Warland said.
“She needs the race run to suit her and for there to be no champions in the race.
“For only a little horse, she always tries hard and is an honest type but just needs things to ho her way and to have that bit of luck in running.”
Her most recent victory gave Warland his 31st win as a trainer.
“I’ve been training horses as a hobby for 60 years,” he said.
“I started helping my father (George Warland) when I was 23.
“He had horses for most of his life and at the age of 16 bought a mare and bred from that family line for more than 40 years.
“I prefer to breed my own horses as well and have always had a few horses in work.”
With three horses in work currently, Warland finds it as a great way to fill in time since he retired from work 24 years ago.
“I worked with tipper trucks and retired when I was 59,” Warland recalled.
“Now the horses help fill in time and I’ll just continue to breed the odd horse here and there and race them.
“It’s nice to have a horse that is competitive at Menangle . . . it is rewarding for all the effort and work you put in.”
And that work has been paying off especially with Just Tootsie rating a career best 1:53.5 in her most recent victory.
“The sport has advanced so much in my time,” Warland said.
“I remember when they couldn’t beat the 1:58.7 track record at Harold Park for several years!”
That record was set by the great pacer Ribands in a time trial at Harold Park in 1954 in front of a crowd of nearly 23,000 people.
It took 14 years for that mile rate to be lowered in a race and it took the Tasmanian champion in Halwes to do it.
Halwes won the 1968 Miracle Mile in a mile rate of 1:58.6, also lowering the mile race record held by Robin Dundee.
Warland was driving in races during this era, however, has not driven in a race since 2001.
“I drove behind Paleface Adios in a race one night,” Warland recalled.
“It was Paleface Adios’ first start at Harold Park and he fell and so did I!
“I landed on the ground in front of him and that’s my claim to fame . . . I tell everyone that I finished in front of Paleface Adios one night.
“They were some of the best days of trotting.
“I was in the grandstand that night Caduceus won the Inter Dominion at Harold Park when there was a crowd of 50,000 people.
“You couldn’t move . . . you couldn’t go to the betting ring, you had to stay where you were or you would miss the race.
“People were climbing on top of the grandstand to get a view and I remember seeing a body come through the ceiling.
“Bits of fibro had fallen down and there were just people everywhere.”
Having had the privilege of experiencing this while still racing horses today, surprisingly Warland is not the oldest harness racing trainer to have trained a winner in New South Wales.
That title belongs to Gerald Cairns who was 86 when he trained Maxistar to victory at Penrith in 2013.
The oldest driver to win a race in the state is Patrick Maguire who was 84 when he drove Altostratus to win at Leeton in 1990.
Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 33 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.
To arrange an interview or for further information please contact:
AMANDA RANDO | MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
(02) 9722 6600 • arando@hrnsw.com.au • @Amanda_Rando