Grima one to follow

24 December 2020

SEATON Grima is a young reinsman on the rise.

The 17-year-old is enjoying his lifestyle, dividing his time between his passion for harness racing and his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker in Penrith, where he is in his third year.

Grima is a graduate of the Mini Trotters, driving them for as long as he could before gaining his harness racing license in September last year.

Currently Seaton is working with Castlereagh mentor, Joe Connelly, where he is learning a lot about training the horses.

“Joe has taught me a lot about the sport and how to prepare the horses for racing,” said Grima.

“I was introduced to him by a mutual friend and we immediately hit it off together and now we share the workload with training the horses, it has worked out well for both of us.”

Grima’s introduction to driving has been a good one with 16 winners on his score card, so far.

He drove his first winner, All About Art, a horse he owned himself and was trained by Connelly on October 31 last year.

Just four weeks ago Seaton drove his first winning double at Penrith, partnering Dont Goin Thewater and Zion Bromac to comfortable wins.

“I have been lucky enough to drive some really nice horses over the past 12 months,” he said.

“And we have picked up a couple of nice ones to train, including Golden Year, who has given us plenty of thrills, racing in metropolitan class on a Saturday night.

“My ambition is to one day become a successful trainer-driver and make a full-time career in the sport and hopefully get my hands on a top horse.

“But in the meantime, I am satisfied with what I am doing now . . . striving to be the best that I can be and learning from the many talented horsemen that are currently in the Sydney region.”

Grima is back at Penrith tonight where he has driven most of his winners and he fancies the chances of Zion Bromac in Race 3.

“This horse has untapped ability and has drawn well in gate two,” he said.

“I hope he will be able to maintain a forward position from there, if he does, he should be hard to beat.”

Mister Magic Man (Race 4) is Grima’s second drive and looks a decent place chance from gate three.