Aim First won the Bendigo Pacing Cup on the 4 January 1991, followed by Carden Court and Jocks Regret. Aim First owned by Mr B Devcic, was trained by B Devcic and driven by Gavin Lang. Aim First raced from 1986 (2yo) through to 1996 (12yo). Career: 38 wins 34 seconds 34 thirds 229 starts.Two colour photographs, one small one large in a brown, black, gold frame. At the top: Bendigo Harness Racing 4-1-91/ National Mutual Bendigo Pacing Cup/ C8 or better At the bottom: Left corner: Distance 2700 metres/ Mile rate 2.05.2 / Greg Matthews Photos - Stawell Centre: Aim First (Young Dancer - Brahn Beauty) / Carden Court 2nd / Jocks Regret 3rd Right corner: Owned by- Mr B Devcic/ Trained by B Devcic / Driven by Gavin Langbendigo harness racing club, horses, race, winner, bendigo trotting club, pacing cup, driver, trainer, owner, 1991, aim first, b devcic, gavin lang, carden court, jocks regret, boris devcic, g lang

non-fictionarmy, greece, crete, syria

Sumthingaboutmaori (Pine Chip Imp Tr 1.51.0 - Maori Princess Vic Tr 2.45 (Entrepreneur)) Bay Mare. Foaled 1998 (4th Foal). Breder/Owner: R McD Healy. Trainer BR Healy. Sumthingaboutmaori raced from 2001 (2yo) through to 2006 (7yo). Career: 31 wins 8 seconds 8 thirds 75 starts $461,499 2.00.9 Winning Drivers: Gavin Lang (26) BR Healy (3) DK Douglas (1) JJ Caldow (1). Won on 9 Tracks: Moonee Valley (10) Bendigo (5) Maryborough (5) Kilmore (3) Geelong (3) Shepparton (2) Cranbourne (1) Horsham (1) Globe Derby SA (1)2000-2001 Victorian Square Trotters Association 2yo Trotter of the Year Trophy won by Sumthingaboutmaori. 2yo Season record 4 wins 1 second 2 thirds 8 starts $14,505 2.05.4Glass plaqueVictorian Square Trotters Association 2000-2001 / 2yo Trotter of the Year / Winner / Sumthingaboutmaori / Donated by Victoria Harness Racing Clubtrotting, harness racing, sumthingaboutmaori, 2yo trotter of the year, victorian square trotters association, 2000-2001, award, trophy, gavin lang, g lang, br healy, bryan healy, r healy, ric healy, b healy, r mcd healy

Sumthingaboutmaori (Pine Chip Imp Tr 1.51.0 - Maori Princess Vic Tr 2.4.5 (Entrepreneur)) Bay Mare. Foaled 1998 (4th Foal) Breeder/Owner: R McD Healy & Co Pty Ltd. Trainer BR Healy. Sumthingaboutmaori raced from 2001 (2yo) through to 2006 (7yo). Career: 31 wins 8 seconds 8 thirds 75 starts $461,499 2.00.9 Winning Drivers: Gavin Lang (26) BR Healy (3) DK Douglas (1) JJ Caldow (1). Won on 9 Tracks: Moonee Valley (10) Bendigo (5) Maryborough (5) Geelong (3) Kilmore (3) Shepparton (2) Cranbourne (1) Horsham (1) Globe Derby SA (1)2004 Vancleve Award for Australian Trotter of the Year and Aged Trotting Mare of the Year won by Sumthingaboutmaori. Season 2004 record 6 wins 1 second 0 thirds 10 starts $261,782 2.00.9 Heat and Final Interdominion Trotting Championship / SA Trotters Cup / Australian Trotting Grand PrixGlobed shaped trophy2004 / Australian Harness Racing Award / Vancleve Awards / Australian trotter of the year / Aged trotting mare of the year / Sumthingaboutmaoritrotter, vancleve trophy, trophy, australian harness racing award, sumthingaboutmaori, gavin lang, g lang, br healy, bryan healy, r healy, ric healy, b healy, r mcd healy

2003 Australian Trotting Grand Prix Horse RugHorse Rug won by Sumthingaboutmaori for winning the Australian Trotting Grand Prix at Moonee Valley in 2003White, Green & Gold background with Green & White writing, Gold fringing & edgingFront Top: Moonee Valley / Australian Trotting Grand Prix / Melbourne . Front Bottom: Australian Trotting Grand Prix / Moonee Valley / 2003.harness racing, rug, horse rug, moonee valley, australian grand prix, 2003, sumthingaboutmaori, r healy, ric healy, bryan healy, br healy, gavin lang, g lang, b healy, r mcd healy

"Melton has a long and celebrated history of horse breeding and racing. Draught horses were a crucial aspect of life in the early days of European settlement, and were heavily depended upon for both transport and agricultural labour. Peppercorn trees at the corner of Station and Brooklyn roads have been associated with a horse trough installed there to provide a drink to workhorses carting produce to the chaff mills and railway station south of Melton.20 Breeders, trainers and harness drivers in the area later became such an influential force in the equine industry that this came to be a defining aspect of the district’s identity and reputation.Pioneer of the Victorian horse racing industry and early Rockbank squatter William Cross Yuille was one of the earliest importers of stud racehorses in the district in the 1850s. A leading sports editor and writer, Yuille established bloodstock auctioning agency W. C. Yuille & Co. and was involved in the compilation of the first Australian Stud Book, which ensures the integrity of thoroughbred breeding in Australia. According to early Melton chronicler Alexander Cameron, horse races were first organised in the area by Rockbank farmer William Keating. Keating owned racehorses of his own, and many brought horses from Melbourne for the events, which ‘drew large gatherings’.22 Melton Racing Club meetings were held on the Exford Estate with the permission of H. W. Staughton, who built a small wooden grandstand in 1882. Other early races and sports meetings are said to have been held in the vicinity of the current-day Melton golf course.23 An 1884 article reported that Melton’s ‘race programme … equals any put forth by country towns of far greater size’. Ernest Clarke was another important figure in the early horse racing industry in Melton. He established the Melton Stud in 1902, which bred numerous successful racehorses. Perhaps most notably The Welkin, one of the most famous stallions in Australian horse racing in the early twentieth century. The Welkin sired Gloaming, bred by Clarke at the Melton stud in 1915 and one of Australia’s greatest champion racehorses. During a long and prestigious career in both Australia and New Zealand, Gloaming achieved a triumphant 57 wins out of 67 starts and won a record amount of prize money. Ken Cox purchased the Stockwell Stud in Diggers Rest in 1957 and developed it into one of the largest and most renowned thoroughbred breeders in Australia. With its top-class facilities, international design standards and scientific methods, Stockwell became ‘the flagship of the Victorian breeding industry’.26 As well as racing studs, numerous trotting tracks were established on the flat plains around Melton in the 1960s.27 Other studs to play a leading role in the development of Melton as thoroughbred country were Cornwall Park and Merrywood at Toolern Vale, St John’s Lane Stud at Diggers Rest and Birchwood, Teppo Park and Dreelburn in the far north-east of the shire, near Sunbury. By 1985, thoroughbred horse breeding was such big business in Melton that the shire council adopted the slogan ‘The Heart of Thoroughbred Country’, which was used throughout its promotional material.29 But the slogan contained deeper meaning and was not just about Melton’s great equine industry and thoroughbred champions, the council explained: ‘“Thoroughbred Country” should be seen as a new concept of Melton, as a place where people can achieve the “Thoroughbred” ideal, excellence in all aspects of life’. The aim of the council in promoting ‘The Heart of Thoroughbred Country’, was ‘to instil in present and future residents the feeling that this is a place that is better than others. A place to be proud of’. In 1988, Melton’s champion reinsman Gavin Lang won his 176th race of the season, claiming the national harness racing record for the most wins in a single season.The following year, the first Melton Plate was held at Moonee Valley Racecourse, cementing the district’s importance in the harness racing industry. The inaugural winner was Victorys Phil, owned by local Danny Mullan. By the 1990s, Melton had earned the title of the ‘Home of Harness Racing in Victoria’. State-of-the-art, world-class harness racing facility and entertainment complex Tabcorp Park opened in Melton in 2009. In 2011, the Shire of Melton was home to over 140 registered trainers and over 1,200 horses. The municipality’s continuing leadership and influence in the industry today is a testament to the skills, talents and leadership of the local community over its history".Shire of Melton pamphlet of a map and information of the equine industry in Meltoncouncil

KEVIN ‘BOOFA’ INNES By Lucy McCormick Kevin was a member of the celebrated Innes clan from Inglewood, in Central Victoria. “I think the first Innes’ came to Inglewood in 1851. My daughter used to say she can’t marry anyone from Inglewood, because she’s related to them all,” says Kevin. ‘Boofa’ is enjoying some well-earned relaxation on the couch after breaking a kneecap six or seven months ago in a track work incident. Not that it seems to be bothering him too much; he’s got plenty of time to keep up with the trots on television. “I do follow them,” Kevin says. “I don’t miss many, and I do have a bet. I like to sit in the chair and drive a race as much as anyone.” With an illustrious career both as a trainer and in the sulky, it’s a safe bet that Kevin Innes is a more than handy ‘grandstand driver’. His name is associated as a trainer/driver with many handy horses, including Lea Sands, Imatoff and Stormy Morn to name a few. Kevin is typically circumspect about his bigger triumphs, however that doesn’t seem to be what interests him the most. “I’ll tell you something,” he declares, doing just that, “I like winning with the horses that were no good. Some people never get a good horse. Imagine that. Luck is a very, very important thing. You have to have luck to buy a good horse at the sales, to get it going, keep it sound, find a race for it, find and owner and get a draw. And they still make a liar of you.” Funny, interesting or quirky stories seem to be of greater interest to Kevin, such as the time he had a strong chance in a standing start race – the favourite in the race being his only worry. “I told the owner it only had a 20-metre handicap – I couldn’t beat it off that,” he remembers. “So I was leading, waiting for the favourite to run past me. Toward the finish, I heard it coming, and it ran straight past all right – minus the driver. He’d fallen out of the cart and I won the race. Just lucky.” The Innes family have always been heavily involved in one sporting pursuit or another – Kevin himself being a champion bike rider of his time. “My Uncle Roy was a good bike rider, so he dared me to have a go. It turned out I was quite good at it as well.” So good, in fact that for many years Kevin was able to make a living from bike riding, riding the ‘board track’ for many years. “We trained hard. Bike riding was very big back then, we’d train and ride three or four times a week.” Kevin’s riding career spanned four Herald Sun Tours, a Warrnambool to Melbourne and a Sydney to Melbourne race, to name a few. “It definitely gets you in – it was long hours,” he muses. “But like anything, horse racing included, you only get back what you put in. We trained hard. I never drank, and I still don’t. I’ve seen that many athletes, great ones too, brought down by alcohol.” Lucky with injury too, Kevin can only remember a sore ankle – as well as the requisite scrapes and abrasions from tumbles on the wooden boards of the velodromes. He still enjoys watching all the big bike races when he can. “You can watch them race all over the world – France, Sweden, Germany. “To be honest I sit up and watch them with my son and we get just as much of a kick looking at the countryside than anything else. It’s so different to when I was racing.” Betting on the bike racing was big in Kevin’s day as well, and some of the bookies Kevin saw betting on the bike racing, he saw at the Showgrounds betting on the trots on a Friday or Saturday night. “Racing was different back then. There would be twelve thousand people at the showgrounds – they don’t have to come anymore, it’s just as easy to watch it on the TV.” Kevin remembers in those days that drivers had to ‘weigh in’ as well – everyone who drove needed to weigh ten stone (just under 65 kilograms). It’s something he remembers fondly. “I know not everyone will.” Kevin won’t be drawn on the subject of favourite drivers, either. “Look. Driving is different now. No disrespect to current drivers, but you had to think a lot more on a three furlong track than they do now on the bigger tracks. You had to drive with brains. And I really believe that good horses make good drivers. The horses are very good these days. Today’s drivers – your Gavin Langs, Chris Alfords – they’re thinkers, and brains will beat brawn every time. The girls are just as good now too. You only have to look at Kerryn Manning.” A garrulous and popular character, Kevin has trained horses for the likes of legendary Richmond player Jack Dyer, and also spent his fair share of time hosting sportsman’s nights, holding his own with the likes of Ron Barassi. On one such night, they had flown in a light aircraft to their destination. During their show, Kevin noticed their pilot, sitting in the front row, laughing appreciatively. There was one problem. He had a beer in his hand, and was consuming it with some enthusiasm. As the night wore on, the pilot became more and more inebriated, and Kevin became more and more disturbed, knowing that this was the same pilot who was to fly them home when they finished. Unbeknownst to Kevin, however, the flight had been cancelled and the pilot hadn’t told anyone, instead deciding to take full advantage of his client’s hospitality. For now, Kevin is happy living in Inglewood with partner Barbara. Son Grant and daughter Carla aren’t far away (both work at the Bendigo Harness track, and Carla has held both a trainer and driver’s licence). His granddaughter, Barclay Sands, was born on the same day of the demise of their star performer, Lea Sands, and may give the biggest hint yet just how important the world of harness racing is to Kevin ‘Boofa’ Innes. Blue with white yolkKevin Innes embroidered on left side chestkevin innes, k innes, bendigo harness racing club, bhrc, bendigo, horses, race colours, trotting, pacing, harness racing