Grimson the hometown hero again

12 March 2023

RETURNING to your country hometown to win the feature Cup in any race code is something that many owners, trainers, and drivers aspire to do.

On Friday night at Young Harness Racing Club’s TAB Carnival Of Cups meeting, former local Jason Grimson was able to fulfill that aspiration for the second year in succession when Sicario scored a comfortable win in the $30,000 Cordina Racing Young Pacers Cup.

Grimson grew up in the Cherry Capital but now calls Menangle Park home and while he was not on track on Friday night, was pleased with the win, Sicario being his sole runner on the Young Club’s premier meeting for the year.

Champion reinsman Cam Hart travelled down from Sydney with Jason’s stable foreman, Nick Stanton, confident that Sicario would take some beating in the Group 3 event.

After drawing on the outside of the backline for the 2480m journey, Hart was quick to put the odds-on favourite into the race, finding the top after just 700m.

From there the gelding was never headed and cruised to a comfortable five-metre win, defeating handy country pacers Mighty Joe and Romanee.

Hart began his impressive driving career at Junee in the heart of the Riverina and was pleased to be back in Young, a track where he regularly competed as a junior reinsman.

“It is great to come home to the Riverina and capture a feature race win again,” said Hart.

“Jase and I have had a lot of success together over the past few years and it was great that we could do it again on Friday.

“Sicario is a super horse and it is a credit to Jason that he has the horse back racing at his best.

“He was simply cruising on Friday night.”

The past 12 months have been a busy time for Grimson and Hart, both travelling along the eastern seaboard and abroad, taking on the Kiwis in New Zealand.

Their hard toil was rewarded in December when they captured the Inter Dominion with I Cast No Shadow, which is raced by prominent client Dianne Reilly, who also owns Sicario.

“It has been a massive time combining with Jason and his owners,” said Hart.

 “They all show a lot of faith in my ability, so it is nice to be able to deliver some big-race wins for them.”