News & Media

16 July 2009 Greg Kersley nearing driving milestone – good book of drives this Sunday

A winning double to Greg Kersley at last Sunday’s Geraldton meeting brought Kersley to within three winners of a career tally of 300 winners and with a book of handy drives this Sunday he should add to his total.

Kersley leads the UDR ratings at Geraldton this season with his 23 drives having yielded seven winners, six seconds and three thirds for an excellent UDR of 0.4947 from having 16 of the 23 drives being placed.

Oakford trainer Ross Olivieri has been a strong supporter of Geraldton since the club’s inception in 1995 and all of Kersley’s seven winners at Geraldton this season have come from members of Olivieri’s team.

The overall leading driver award at Geraldton this season is being headed by Lang Inwood who has driven eight winners from 31 drives.

Sunday’s meeting is the penultimate fixture with the Geraldton season winding up on July 26th and the battle for leading driver honour will be a highlight of the final two meetings of the season.

Kersley drove his first winner behind the Greg Harper trained Royal Imp at Pinjarra on 7th December 1985 and his biggest success came in the 1996 Ladyship Mile at Harold Park when he was a last minute replacement for his sister Kellie who failed to win an appeal against a driving suspension.

Lewis approaching 3800 career wins and a personal best season

A double at Northam on Tuesday night behind Snowballs A Flyin and Dangerous When Wet took ace reinsman Chris Lewis to a career tally of 3773 winners.

Lewis is also on target for his best season ever as his 2008/09 tally of 205 winners is just six short of his all-time best of 211 winners set in the 1994/95 season when he nosed out Victorian Chris Alford to win the National Title.

Alford looked to have a mortgage on the title that year as Lewis had no meeting at which to drive on the last day of the season while Alford had drives at Maryborough in Victoria.

After Victorian officials rejected a WATA offer to fly Lewis to Victoria to take on Alford in a head-to-head battle for the title arrangements were made with New South Wales officials and Lewis picked up five drives at the Menangle meeting that night.

Alford drove one winner at Maryborough to draw level with Lewis on 208 wins prior to the Menangle meeting. Three winners at Menangle that night took Lewis to 211 winners and a National Title.

This season is the third occasion that Lewis has passed 200 winners in a season as he finished last season with 206 winners and at his current success rate the 4000 career wins milestone is not that far away.

Andrew De Campo reaches milestone despite all but retiring as a driver
A merging last weekend of more than 12,000 driving records pre-1990 with more recent WA records last weekend has revealed that Capel based reinsman Andrew De Campo reached the 900 career wins milestone courtesy of a treble at Bunbury on June 26th.

De Campo has had just 12 race drives this season and hadn’t driven in a race since the conclusion of the Busselton season on January 30th.

The re-introduction of a second Friday night meeting at Harvey on June 19th forced De Campo’s hand as his regular race drivers were all committed to driving at Gloucester Park that Night.

De Campo won with Nowuseeme at Harvey and seven nights later drove a treble in successive races at Bunbury with Gone To Carlton, Lombo Navigator and Nowuseeme.

Nowuseeme was De Campo’s 900th career win since he began driving in 1983. His first winner came courtesy of Frosty Keystone at Busselton on Boxing Day 1983 - less than a month after he turned seventeen.