Prior to Wednesday night Glen Judd had never driven Blaze Edition, but after what he did at the Bathurst Paceway he could find himself with the job more often.
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Judd produced a perfect display of driving to help the $9.50 chance to victory in the Harness Racing New South Wales Rewards Series Final (1730 metres).
Race caller Craig Easey was certainly impressed.
"Got a beautiful drive at that start by Glen Judd, ended up in the one by one position and that was a winning move," he said.
"It was a great drive, that will be hard to beat tonight."
Glen Judd was given the job by his son, Oberon trainer and Group 10 Rugby League legend Wade Judd, to drive the lightly raced six-year-old in Wednesday night's final.
It was just the sixth start for the Western Edition x Bold Blaze gelding, who was chasing his first career win from a tricky wide second row draw.
But Judd did a perfect job with the outsider. He got a brilliant start and found cover one-out and one-back as $2.60 favourite Josephine Brook led the way.
With Soldtoyoulady over-racing in the death seat, Judd peeled out Blaze Edition three wide just before the final bend.
Blaze Edition won by 3.4m over Josephine Brook, with Julenjode ($6) a head back in third. He clocked a 1:58.3 mile rate in snagging his first career win.
After his success, Glen Judd thanked his son for giving him the drive on a gelding that he felt was better than his maiden status had suggested.
"He has been going quite well for my son," he said.
Meanwhile, Bathurst native Todd McCarthy has been selected to represent Australia at the prestigious 2019 World Driving Championships in Sweden.
Now based at Cobbitty, McCarthy made history last year when he became the first person to have secured both an Australian Drivers’ Championship and Australasian Young Drivers’ Championship outright.
This season he drove Tiger Tara to glory in the Inter Dominion and Hunter Cup, taking his career tally of Group 1 winning drives to six.
"I have no doubt Todd will perform well in the demanding series and be a wonderful ambassador for Australian harness racing,” Harness Racing Australia chairman Michael Taranto said.
McCarthy will be one of 12 driver involved in the championship, which runs from May 24-31. It consists of 24 heats across six race meetings.
He follows in the footsteps of the legendary Tony 'AD' Turnbull who represented Australia in 1989.
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