“I done it for you, Gav!”
Those were the words of young driver Connor Clarke, who used the occasion of his first metropolitan winner to pay tribute to the late Gavin Lang on Saturday night.
Clarke, the 16-year-old emerging talent from Ballarat, was one of a plethora of industry participants to honour Lang at Tabcorp Park Melton.
Lang, a training and driving great of the sport, died on Friday after a well-documented battle with cancer.
Clarke’s comments came after scoring a dominant victory aboard Miss Mcgonagall in the opening race of the evening, the DNR Logistics Pace (2240m, NR 63 to 69).
It was a peach of a drive from the youngster, who only last week scored his first ever win in the sulky.
Burrumbeet trainer/driver Michael Stanley had a long history with Lang and became visibly emotional after winning the second race – the IRT Australia Pace (1720m, NR 57 to 69) – with Single Tree Road.
“I’ve just welled up a bit thinking about him,” Stanley said post-race.
“Two of my mentors in Alan Tubbs and Gav have both passed on and I owe a lot to those two guys and will be forever grateful for what I’ve learnt from them.
“He (Lang) was always one that wasn’t set in his ways and was happy to change things up for the sake of the horse. He was a brilliant horseman and catered for the individual.”
For Greg Sugars, Lang was his idol. And the star reinsman was able to score a winning treble on Saturday night.
Sugars wore the famous blue and orange silks and helmet cover of Lang to victory in the Pridmore Electrics Pace (1720m, 4YO and older) with Like A Wildfire.
Now in the care of Emma Stewart, the horse was previously trained and driven by Lang.
“He was my idol in the sport, pretty much from the time I decided I wanted to be a trotting driver. He was who I wanted to be,” Sugars said.
“I sort of modelled my early style on him. I thought: if you want to be the best, you have got to try and be like them. But that was never going to happen – there was only ever one Gavin Lang.
“I’m just so proud that I did get to know him and that I’ve done his colours justice tonight.”
Sugars wore the Anzac silks to victory behind Little Peanut and Poster Boy, which made his long-awaited return to the track with a brilliant success in the TAB, Long May We Play Pace (1720m, NR 90 to 120).
The Stewart-trained multiple group 1 winner had not been seen at the races for nearly a year, but produced a sizzling 54-second last half mile to score a comfortable triumph.
Friend Jodi Quinlan was among many others who paid tribute to Lang after her success driving Danny Mullane-trained Imperial Whiz.
