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Alan Parkers Obituary Ray Sweetman

Harness & Greyhounds
Alan Parker has published this excellent piece on the passing of Ray Sweetmqn on the HRA website.


Ray Sweetman, an outstanding horseman
and the man who educated Australia’s first 1:55 pacer and leading sire
Classic Garry, died last week and a private funeral was held on
Thursday.

Owen Raymond (Ray) Sweetman was born in 1927 and in 1942 his father
Charlie leased a 2yo called Dallingwood but the gelding had a bad habit
of kicking.

Teenager Ray Sweetman spent countless hours with Dallingwood before
he managed to settle the gelding to the point where he could commence
racing as a 5yo.

Dallingwood won six races in Perth between August 1945 and June 1946
with Ron Porter at the reins while Ray Sweetman went through the process
of obtaining his licence to drive in races.

On Easter Saturday, 5th April 1947 Ray Sweetman drove Dallingwood to
victory at Gloucester Park in a heat of the Easter Handicap. It was his
first winner and came at his fifth race drive. The win saw Dallingwood
re-handicapped from 48 yards to 60 yards for the £2000 Easter Handicap
Final on April 7th.

In what was to become the norm for Ray Sweetman, he showed his
initiative in dashing the 8/1 chance Dallingwood around the field to hit
the front with a lap to travel before holding on to win the final by
three yards.

Over the next five years, Dallingwood won a further 12 races in Perth
with Ray Sweetman at the reins and developed into one of the State’s
best fast-class horses.

He qualified for four WA Pacing Cup finals and finished third to Dark
David and Johnnie Robert in the 1947 Cup and fourth behind Bintravis,
Admiral Spear and Happy Man in 1949.

Dallingwood also won the 1951 Winter Cup and finished third to Sea
Born and Tony Derby in the 1948 Fremantle Cup and third to Happy Man and
Brown Sheik in the 1949 Fremantle Cup.

In a career spanning some 36 years, before a disagreement with the WA
Trotting Association’s stewards saw him hand in his licence, Ray
Sweetman drove 491 winners with 283 of them in the city.

Those 491 winners came per medium of 94 different horses and his
average of five wins per winning horse has been approached by very few
drivers across more than 100 years of trotting in Perth.

His best season as a driver was in 1976/77 when he finished second to
Fred Kersley on the Perth Drivers Premiership with 24 winners. In
1977/78 he drove 32 winners in Perth to finish third in the premiership
race.

This was an era when Ray competed against reinsmen of the calibre of
Fred Kersley, Jim Schrader, Lyle Lindau, Phil Coulson, Trevor Warwick,
Les Poyser, Bob Pollock and Kevin Batt.

Ray Sweetman took out a trainers licence in 1947 and the first of his
417 wins as a trainer came at Gloucester Park with Straight Dalla on
1st November 1947.

In the 1977/78 season Ray Sweetman (34 winners) finished second to
Fred Kersley (36 winners) in the Perth Trainers Premiership. Sweetman
had just seven horses in work at any one time that season compared to
Kersley’s stable which had more than 20 in work.

That was Sweetman’s best season as a trainer although he also
finished second in the 1976/77 season with 23 winners and was in the top
five on the premiership on a further four occasions.

The list of the best horses trained by Ray Sweetman is extensive and
includes the likes of Bronze Whaler which won 21 races for Sweetman.
While he was Sweetman’s most prolific winner he also ranks as unlucky in
that in four successive starts as a 3yo he finished second to Mount
Eden.

Sweetman’s other top liners include Binshaw (three wins including the
1970 Easter Cup), Henry Butler (20 wins), Dale Cliffe (19 wins
including the 1971 Harvey Cup), Special Garry 15 wins including the 1979
WA Derby), Wayamba (16 wins including the 1976 Bunbury Cup), Vermillion
(14 wins), Lou Travis (13 wins), Ardcliffe (13 wins including the 1969
Christmas Gift), Tiara Court (13 wins including the 1965 Churchill
Memorial Cup, 1965 Queens Birthday Cup, 1969 Lord Mayor’s Cup and six
Free-For-Alls), Prince Fandango (12 wins), Thor Rise (11 wins including
the 1978 Easter Cup) and Regal Morris (6 wins including the 1981 Bunbury
Cup).

Sweetman rarely drove horses that he didn’t train but he did drive
the Reason Why gelding Rickey Reason to a remarkable 16 wins for trainer
Gordon Couper in a period of nine months between April and December
1971.

Ray Sweetman rightly developed a reputation as a fearless
front-running driver – a record that he was to attribute to the
stewards.

“After I got suspended a couple of times for pushing out I decided
that the best way to stay out of trouble was to lead and I spent
countless hours educating my horses to begin quickly from the standing
start,” he said some years later.

“After fast-work earlier in the week I knew exactly what my horses
were capable of running on the Friday night and I drove then to run that
time”.

Ray Sweetman had an arrangement with Kevin Newbound from Forest Lodge
Stud in Victoria for first option to purchase the progeny of Newbound’s
star broodmare Gay Acres.

Not long after winning the 1979 WA Derby with Special Garry, Sweetman
inspected a seven month old weanling full-brother to his Derby winner
and didn’t hesitate in pulling out his cheque book.

The athletic colt was nurtured and educated by Ray and after he was
named Classic Garry he was to become an icon of harness racing in
Australia.

Ray trained and drove Classic Garry as a 2yo and 3yo winning 11 races
including the Group Two Champagne Stakes as a 2yo and the New Year
Handicap and a heat of the WA Derby as a 3yo before finishing a luckless
second to Smooth Dave in the 1982 Derby final.

Ray Sweetman had become disillusioned with the WATA Stewards shortly
after the WA Derby in 1982 and when Classic Garry resumed racing in
Perth as a 4yo he was trained by Sweetman’s daughter Lyn Bauskis.

After his run-in with the stewards Ray Sweetman switched to training thoroughbreds with a good degree of success.








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Comments

  • ChariotsonfireChariotsonfire    2,829 posts
    A great front running driver and judge of pace who made his rivals chase and kept them off the bit.

    Greatly resented a foul driving charge by the stewards hat led to his premature departure from harness racing.

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    Anything but a foul driver. Tiara Court was a favourite of mine, tough and resilient and raced to a ripe old age. A great conditioner of horses, in either code.. Another of the old pillars sadly gone.

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • tofarkennardtofarkennard    177 posts
    Had some very good gallopers including just a ham chest mark & fair alert which i think willy pike cut his teeth on in town a bit RIP

    Ridersonthestorm33 likes this post.

  • detonatordetonator    4,360 posts
    Ray was my favourite reinsman growing up.
    Bronze Whaler my favourite pacer. Wayamba,Vermillion Classic Garry great memories.
    Richmond Raceway great night out.

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • ChariotsonfireChariotsonfire    2,829 posts
    Richmond Raceway Detonator, you should be a Dockers supporter!!!

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • detonatordetonator    4,360 posts

    Richmond Raceway Detonator, you should be a Dockers supporter!!!


    Haha
    Richmond Raceway wasn't quite in the heart of the cappuccino strip.
    But despised the "Old Easts" so it was hit and run missions. Lol

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • tofarkennardtofarkennard    177 posts
    Richmond was a great night out just old enough to bet n drink close to it closing down drive past now with a heavy heart

    VillageKid, jum, Ridersonthestorm33 likes this post.

  • MarkovinaMarkovina    2,890 posts
    I can remember when he left the Trots he was very bitter - even when he was training gallopers i got the impression he would have preferred to be still be involved with the Trots but was forced out

    When he sold Classic Garry - who was a nice horse - but no superstar - to G Harper clients - Schrader drove it one night at GP - and slaughtered it - then FRK became its regular driver . I dont why Greg Harper didnt drive his horses more often  -because i thought he was a pretty good driver - and he had the happy  knack of beating Trevor Warwick in big races

    Its interesting at that point in time - Lindsay Harper  didnt get a look in with G Harpers horses . Lindsay then was an absolute battler - no rated much at all as a driver - and the few horses he trained were very ordinary stock .

    I see another bloke  from that era with a Trots background whose been in the news lately - and thats the great " Statesman "  himself - Burkey - Brian Burke - i might buy his book . Apparently as a younger bloke - he was a Trots tipster - he had some sort of Trots tipping publication - a bit of a mini Best Bets

    The old Trots hey - theve got a tangled Web .

    JayJay, VillageKid likes this post.

  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    edited June 2017
    Greg was a bit too "excitable" to be a regular top driver, although he did land a lot of winners and drove some very good races. FRK was a far more reliable option.
    LBH didn't really rise to prominence until later...Phil Coulson started to use him a lot when he was winding down his driving activity and that sort of coincided with Lindsay getting going. Greg di use him towards the end with Lively Medley.

    Punters Guide was Burkey's publication (along with Gino De Mori) which they used to flog (in person) outside the main gates every Friday night. It was the punter's essential piece of gear each weekend. I will also buy his book...not sure about it's classification....political history or fiction???...but sure to be an interesting read. I had a bit to do with his older lads in the 80's ....couldn't fault them.

    Just back to Ray for a moment...he always looked a bit grumpy and unapproachable...but he wasn't. Just deadly serious and professional about his horses. Never saw him present one that didn't look a picture of health.. If you got him at a quiet moment, he would chat away very amiably.

    VillageKid, Markovina, jum likes this post.

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