You’d be hard pressed to find a nicer bloke around the stables and on Friday night at Gloucester Park he proved that nice guys don’t finish last, with Mark Norman claiming his first training win and a metropolitan win at that.
Three-year-old maiden Blitzar started at $19 odds in the last at Gloucester Park on Friday, January 31, in the Running Camel Summer Series Maiden Final and claimed his first victory with Mitch Miller on board, in what trainer Mark Norman could only describe as “a delight for the family.”
“It’s been a delight for the family, I said driving to the trots the other night, as my brothers up north doing research and my sister was busy and dad’s not well, I was driving to the trots because mum passed away a few years ago and I said ‘well, I know it’s a big call but mum you need to put the good word in for me with the big man upstairs and give us a bit of luck tonight.’
“And we had it and he was driven beautifully by Mitchell (Miller) and a big thanks has to go to little Abbey Vidovich who got Blitzar into the final, so a big thank to her and Dean Miller who helped break the horse in and I’m very blessed to have these beautiful people along the line all helping out.”
“But it is a joy, and it brought a lot smiles to a lot of people’s faces.”
Although his dad couldn’t be on track on the night with it being such a late night on Friday, it didn’t stop the two from celebrating when he got home.
“When I come home, he’s in bed snoring his head off obviously and I’ve come down to him and I said ‘Dad’ and he said, ‘how did you go?’ and I said ‘Dad, we won.’ And you’ve never seen him get out of bed so quick to watch the replay, it was so beautiful.”
“It gives me goosebumps. I am very blessed to be able to do what I do, even though I’ve been in the game all of my life, but it’s the first time under my own banner now, it’s always been under dads as he’s been the head of the family and the trainer, but to do it yourself, it’s an honour to keep the little Norman name going.”
After a troublesome start to racing with injuries plaguing the young horse, it appears all systems go with the son of former WA stallion Follow The Stars, with Norman hopeful his horse is past all of his issues.
“The Norman family have been involved in trotting since my grandfather, and then my father and when we were all younger my siblings were all drivers and my dad at the same time.”
Mark Norman made the move to the family’s Serpentine farm just over 10 years ago to help care for his parents and the property, helping his dad train the last of the horses under Alan Norman’s name and it was in recent years that Mark made the decision to gain his own licence for the most recent horses the family has bred.
“The best thing about the horses that we’ve had is that we’ve always bred our own and we’ve had a great line.”
“When I was a driver back in the 80’s, I used to drive a horse called Vein Of Gold and when she finished racing she went into foal and from there lead to a great line, broodmare of the year, two-year-old of the year with Our Golden Finale and then we had Full Package, Miss Placed, she won the Sires I think it was, and this is the offspring of that as well.”
Blitzar is out of broodmare Momentous, whose dam On Golden Pond was a winner of eight races herself.
Momentous had just the two wins from 50 starts but was a half-sister to Miss Placed and Full Package, who earned the Norman family just over $176,000 in prize money.
The Norman family have been involved in WA harness racing for a very long time and their love of the game is unwavering, but when he isn’t doing the horses or spending time with his dad, Mark is an accomplished author and journalist in the food and hospitality industry, with his book ‘Owning a Café or Coffee Shop’ published in 2021.
“I’m very blessed, I have my health, I’m looking after my dad and actually why you get into the game is to get that thrill of seeing your horse get past the post, but it’s not just a one man, it’s a lot of people involved.”
Blitzar is likely to head to either Pinjarra on Monday February 10 in penalty free Junior Drivers Series race or to Gloucester Park the following night.
Ashleigh Paikos
Image: Pacepix