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1980 WA Pacing Cup

Harness & Greyhounds
This has just recently appeared on You Tube. The champ San Simeon records win 28 in succession in superb fashion....the one and only George calls it brilliantly, the crowd is absolutely enormous, bigger than I recall ....and I was there that night. Gee, Gloucester Park was a well promoted must attend venue back then.



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  • MarkovinaMarkovina    2,889 posts
    Thanks for that Jay Jay - very enjoyable - great win/run by San Simeon - also big run by Koala King - number 14 - so it was off a back mark - came home well for 4th 

    One thing that intrigued me with that vision - re the crowd - the track was smaller then - just over 700 metres i think - but the area - re coming off the back straight - to turn around that bend to hit the front straight - the depth of the crowd their was amazing - like the square metre area they were covering 

    All the times i went to GP - and it was plenty of times - i never ventured up around their - so i dont know what was their 

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  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    Great to see Lou Austin only use the whip sparingly.
    Re back straight crowd area was lots of grass on a hill and the odd burger stand. From memory I think there was a tote room right at the very top of the home straight plus another entry/exit.
    How times have changed.

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  • VillageKidVillageKid    2,275 posts
    Fantastic video JJ.
    Gee they were great days back then not only in the trots but WA sport full stop.

    cisco, JayJay, savethegame, Arapaho likes this post.

  • curmudgeoncurmudgeon    2,417 posts
    Another flawless performance from Leo ...what a great horse he was

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  • VillageKidVillageKid    2,275 posts

    Another flawless performance from Leo ...what a great horse he was


    He is so underrated Curmudgeon especially by the Eastern States mafia I mean media.
    I remember Bob Maumill years ago on 6pr had Adam Hamilton on previewing an Interdominion series (possibly circa 1992/93) and Bob mentioned how many great champion pacers WA had produced in the previous decade or so like Pure Steel, Preux Chevalier, Village Kid, San Simeon, Sationver etc and Hamilton agreed with the first 3 but was reluctant to add the latter 2 to that status because in his opinion they hadnt beaten the Vics.
    JJ would know for certain but I was pretty sure they had beaten the likes of Gammalite, Popular Alm at times here? 
    Or maybe he meant actually in Melbourne like most of the Vic footy commentators always bang on about?
    Anyways you dont win your first 29 starts in succession if you are just an average horse....I dont reckon the Vics would say that of Black Caviar!

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  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    I am pretty sure that a lot of people take little notice of Hamilton who throws the label of champion around all too freely and gets excited when something wins impressively at Terang or Shepparton e.g Ride High ......and nice enough horse that he was, old San Carlo was talked up like he was Niatross for a number of seasons by Hamilton. San Simeon dispatched one of my favourite all time horses in Gammalite, not once but twice, in WA in both the WA and Australian Derbies, a case of Leo beating Leo's.  To be fair, Popular Alm never got out of first gear around GP.....he couldn't beat Rhetts Law for goodness sake in that very forgettable Inters Series of 1982. Sadly, the Inters that San Simeon won down in Hobart in 1981 was also far from top shelf but that Pacing Cup win above was totally authoritive. Gammalite's win over Poppy and Delightful Lady at a quality Alexander Park Interdominion rightfully garnered him "champion" status, he won again in 1984 at Globe Derby, having put a Pacing Cup and a Freo Cup in the trophy cabinet the year before and went on to race forever.  Very sadly, the trip to the USA for San Simeon was a disastrous move by the connections and that was basically it for him.....sounds silly for a horse with 29 straight but I don't think we saw the best of him due to injury.  As for Satinover, well at his best and on his best behaviour he was devastating, fixed up Steelo a couple of times but just like Poppy was no good over here, Satinover went no good over there, Sydney or Melbourne. I just don't think he was ever tractable enough to travel well.  For mine, Hamilton is a populist that plays to whoever he is being interviewed by and hopes to escape unchallenged.....which given the current day calibre, he usually does. Not very credible in my view but it is a free world, some regard him as the guru.

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  • PictureSon1973PictureSon1973    138 posts
    Look no doubting it’s a W.A v The East thing in all Facets of Sporting competition.
    And there are no better swinging Dick types than Victorians . Melbourne this Melbourne
    that as a City basically trying to imitate Europe can’t compare to Sydney for Natural Beauty IMO .
    But to say that Hamilton & even a Gareth don’t promote and I believe genuinely enjoy G.P
    Racing is wrong .
    They may not be everyone’s cup of tea but their enthusiasm is contagious better than the
    RWWA Promotions Department all day .

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  • savethegamesavethegame    2,786 posts
    Never ever taken notice of A.H.his like Melb's weather he wears too many hats regarding being Melbs no1 coat tugger  & urger regard changes for harness racing------ the gallops  for the benefit of Betting Corp's----Seems to control the destiny of young media personal-----who dare not offer a different perspective so you watch them just nodding in agreeance.at the table.around aus . Mick Guerin holds his own with him more to do  with his knowledge of N.Z harness.

      IMO. Most exciting time in harness racing was mid 70s -late 80s.  What they never got right was the inters with horses getting hcp. champions like pure steel, paleface adios starting from 15m.hcps without winning one Steelo  had two make 2-3 runs to get in the race.once a field settled down..

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  • MarkovinaMarkovina    2,889 posts
    Boy there is alot absolute garbage on this site 

    They bag/rubbish everything -  its AFL - its Trotting - it is literally everything - they just love whingeing - and anything over East - they have got this idiotic  bias - in their brain 

    There is a simple reason - and showing no bias at all - why the likes of Pure Steel Gammalite and  Village Kid are rated way higher than San Simeon - simply because they did it for so much longer 

    Put up their 3 records - number of starts - wins - prizemoney - all the big races they won - then any fair minded person would rate them higher than San Simeon - and those 3 horses ive listed - their are 2 WA horses - and 1 Victorians - and the 3 of them were deadset champions - so there is none of this Eastern States chip on the shoulder kindergarten rubbish 

    Im not rubbishing the deeds of San Simeon at all - winning 29 in a row is a mighty effort - but you look at that fairly - the younger horse wins are much easier - look at that thing that John Hunt use to rave about - Lindsay Harper use to drive - how many did it win in a row as a juvenile

    Village Kid Gammalite and Pure Steel are rated higher than San Simeon because they did it - year in year out -for much longer 7 - 8 - 9 years - it is as simple as that 

    And you could add Im The Mighty  Quinn to those 3 pacers i named - you could argue the case it  was the best ever - it just won - big race  after big race - for many years - and it did  one thing consistently - numerous  times - it won big races - on that totally unfair GP track - from impossible positions - incredible performances - like i say - you could argue the case that it was the best pacer ever - because of that fact
  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    Fair call Marko.
  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    Fair call? I can't see anywhere that VK suggested San Simeon was rated higher than the others....he correctly pointed out that San Simeon had comprehensively pantsed Gammalite twice in a row on the "unfair "GP track which is presumeably only unfair to some horses. Gammalite found it pretty fair when he won the Pacing Cup and went 1.55 and change one summer.  "I'm not rubbishing the deeds of San Simeon at all" ...and then proceeds to rubbish him by comparing him to someones view of a far inferior horse that just happened to win Australian 2 year old of the year and whose name he can't remember and can't be bothered looking up. And then finally introduces the "best pacer ever argument" as a complete distraction, an unanswerable question on a good day, with the added distraction that Quinnie, along with all the others who raced and won at GP, was also racing on an unfair track. And finally, if you don't realise that the Vics still think the AFL started back in 1880 something by refusing to acknowledge the exploits or even count the games played by champions from outside the Vic border prior to the formation of the AFL in 1990, then I think it is your brain that is questionable. As far as garbage on this site, that's pretty rich coming from a prime generator. By the way, the horse referred to was Ray Jones's Disco Force, same fellow that trained Lavro Joe.

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  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    Was more referring to the 5-7 year theory.
  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    Who knows where or what he woud have done had he not gone to the USA where he broke down? As a 5 year old? He only started twice after he returned from there and he probably shouldn't have. Only started 39 times for 33 wins. Can't ask for much more in a very limited racing career.

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