Historical information

Jack Hargreaves drove Adaptor to win the 1969 Bendigo Cup.

Jack Hargreaves, who died on December 6 at the Bendigo Hospital aged 77, trained and drove countless winners during a 34-year harness racing career in which he became one of the true icons of the sport.
Born John Henry Hargreaves in Wedderburn on December 3, 1926, harness racing was always in his blood.
His father, Hughie, was a successful driver and trainer who raced horses all over Victoria.

Jack drove his first winner at the age of 16 at Woodend.


He lived on the family farm at Kuracca, near Wedderburn, until the age of 22, when he then married Elvie Stephenson from Fentons Creek.

He and Elvie went on to have four children - Helen (now 53), Judi (51), Roslyn (49) and John (45).

They are grandparents of 15 and great-grandparents of two.

After spending two years at Tallarook where he worked on a sheep property, Jack and Elvie then moved to Korong Vale, where Jack set up his own training stable.

He kept about 20 horses at a time at his Korong Vale stable, training and racing all of them for 26 years at his property.

His greatest moment was the 1969 Miracle Mile, when he drove Adaptor to victory.

Adaptor would later be sold to America for the then highest figure paid for an export horse - about $250,000.

He also notched up many wins in country pacing cups, including Bendigo, Geelong, Maryborough, Kilmore and St Arnaud.

During his career, Jack built a reputation of being a fine judge of pace and he consistently brought out the best in some difficult horses.

His natural ability led to him being crowned Bendigo's leading driver for the season on two occasions.

But an accident at Mildura on November 26, 1976 - just days before his 50th birthday - led to his driving career being cut short prematurely.

Jack sustained head injuries after he was trampled by another horse after being tipped out of his sulky while driving Go Ned.

He was regaining his senses and sitting up in the middle of the track when the horse went straight over him.

The hoof of the horse came down between his left ear and skullcap, shattering that part of his skull.

In the weeks following the accident, Jack underwent lengthy operations in Melbourne, to firstly clear splinters of bone from his brain.

He then had a piece of bone removed from one of his ribs to cover a hole in his skull.

He was left with injuries that were described as being similar to those of a person who had suffered a stroke.

Months of physiotherapy and speech therapy followed in Melbourne and later Bendigo, before he was finally allowed to go hone in August, 1977 - almost one year after the accident.

After losing part of his speech in the accident, Jack learned to communicate using his hands.

"It became second-nature to us that we could read his hand signals and most of the people in the harness racing world could, too," Jack's daughter, Judi Bond, said."He learned his own way to communicate with people."While Jack was no longer able to continue his passion of driving competitively, he would still take the reins at the training track when given a chance to by his fellow drivers.He also continued to breed horses.

"He was a skilled horseman, a good farrier and horses were the love of his life," Judi said.

Two years after the accident, Jack and Elvie built a house in Wedderburn, directly above the trotting track.

"That was so in the early days after his accident he could still see what was going on at the track," Judi said.

"Everyday, he would watch the trainers . . . he'd watch what they were up to on the track."Jack was able to sit in his loungeroom and look out through large glass doors with a "grandstand" view of Leg 5 races, trials and training at the trotting track.

Jack's love of harness racing filtered through to his children, with both Judi and John having careers as drivers.

Judi drove for 10 years, finishing in 1978, but she continues to breed horses.

Judi won the first women's race where bets were allowed to be made when she drove Youdini to victory at the Melbourne Showgrounds track in 1974.

Physical description

Blue with yellow vertical panel