AN Inverleigh-based harness racer\u2019s recent win in Melton has completed a personal trifecta of major victories at Victoria\u2019s three premier trotting and pacing venues .<\/p>\n
Bob Kuchenmeister\u2019s win during the Summer of Glory at Melton\u2019s TabCorp Park last month cemented his third success at a premier track, having first won in Melbourne more than 40 years ago.<\/p>\n
Kuchenmeister scored victories at the old Melbourne Showgrounds and Moonee Valley when they were Harness Racing Victoria\u2019s premier venues, and said he wanted to continue the streak when the organisation relocated to Melton in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a goal for me once they shifted the showgrounds out from Moonee Valley to Melton,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought now I\u2019ve got to win a major race here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only about five or six of us that have done this, I don\u2019t know how many exactly, but now I\u2019m one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won a smaller before one in Melton in 2021, and I\u2019d also run a couple places up there but I hadn\u2019t actually won big yet with a metropolitan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melton marked the 10th win for standardbred mare Leanne Leeann, who is owned by Kuchenmeister\u2019s neighbour Brooke Sadler and her mother Jan McLennan and was bred by deceased Meredith policeman Jack Powles.<\/p>\n
Having growing up around horses in South Australia and beginning his harness racing career in the early 1970s, Kuchenmeister was encouraged to get involved in the sport while working as a taxi driver in Geelong.<\/p>\n
His previous Melton win was during the Nutrien Equine Trot in late 2021.<\/p>\n
Kuchenmeister also recently raced at the Ballarat leg of the Inter Dominion in December and said he sees no reason to slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe love of it has kept me in it, simple as that,\u201d he said. \u201cI just love it, it\u2019s a terrific sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a retired man and I just plod along. Most of my horses have been rejects and that\u2019s also what\u2019s kept me in it, getting them into shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody says \u2018oh, you\u2019re a bit old and slow, it\u2019s a pretty dangerous caper,\u2019 but danger\u2019s just what you make of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AN Inverleigh-based harness racer\u2019s recent win in Melton has completed a personal trifecta of major victories at Victoria\u2019s three premier trotting and pacing venues . Bob Kuchenmeister\u2019s win during the Summer of Glory at Melton\u2019s TabCorp Park last month cemented his third success at a premier track, having first won in Melbourne more than 40 […]<\/p>\n