NEARLY four decades ago, well-known Kyneton horseman Greg Leight found himself on the front page of the Latrobe Valley Express newspaper after driving at a Traralgon meeting.
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The paper's photographer snapped Leight wearing plenty of shell grit, but still smiling despite an unplaced drive on a wet Saturday in 1981.
This Friday, Leight is looking to be the headline act again with Daddywho running in the Traralgon Pacing Cup at Warragul.
Daddywho is driven by Leight's son Steve, and draws barrier three in the 2210-metre race.
The Traralgon Pacing Cup has attracted a quality field for a $10,000 prizemoney purse and is the last of six races on Friday.
The race commemorates two decades of registered trotting meetings in Traralgon from 1975 to 1995.
The Cup was staged at Traralgon from 1977 to 1995, while a Latrobe Valley Pacing Cup was also staged there for a number of years.
Legendary horseman Ted Demmler dominated those Cup races at Traralgon with seven winners as trainer or driver.
Since the Traralgon Pacing Cup was reintroduced at Warragul in 2006, Chris Alford has won the race five times, to go with his one Cup win at Traralgon.
Former Traralgon committeeman Brian Andjelkovic and his wife Pat have donated trophies for Friday's race. They sponsored the last race run at Traralgon in November 1995.
Despite modest recent form, including a luckless ninth at Maryborough last Monday, Leight is optimistic he is in with 'a live chance' with Daddywho, a winner of 11 his 138 career starts and placed on 31 occasions..
"I'm certainly not taking him down there thinking he can't win," he said.
"To look at his form, it doesn't read that good, but he is just one of those horses we've got to hand up on him, he can't lead.
"It doesn't work for you all the time and the other day at Maryborough, (while) he only beat a couple home, he got stuck behind two of the slower horses that pulled and pulled up at the 400m, which took him back to last. It was really a non-event.
"But from barrier three, if he can get into the first three in the running, which he's a good chance to do, he'll certainly be there in the finish.
"The way I look at it, his form is a lot better than it looks on paper.
"Even (at Cranbourne on December 6), he finished fourth that day, but was only beaten four or five-metres and the horse that won the race (Zoliver) was very impressive down at Melton in winning on Saturday night.
"You live in hope"
- Originally published on the Harness Racing Victoria website.
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