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Dawn's a good neddy for Eddie (Shepp News 22-01-18)

Dawn’s a good neddy for Eddie

There were nine winners at Cobram Harness Racing Club’s meeting on Thursday, but one was clearly above the rest in the popularity stakes.

Shepparton trainer Eddie Walsh, 88, had a winner at Cobram last week.

Five-year-old mare Concorde Dawn received a Melbourne Cup winning ovation from the crowd when she saluted in a C1 only restricted event for Shepparton trainer Eddie Walsh.

It was Walsh and not Concorde Dawn that all the fuss was about, because as far as stayers go he is right up there with the best of them.

At 88 he is probably Victoria’s oldest licensed trainer, having a licence continually since 1952.

But Father Time has certainly not wearied Walsh or been able to even bruise his passion for the pastime.

Although his days of working a small team of horses are long gone, he loves to still keep his hand in at the sport these days by training Concorde Dawn, a horse he bought last year from prominent Avenel owner Jack Knight and trainer Wayne Potter.

In fact, there has always been a pacer or trotter or two in the Walsh stables since the 1950s when he was living on the northern outskirts of Melbourne.

He remembers having his first drive on the old Woodend trotting track and driving his first winner, Wilbur Direct, at a New Year’s Day meeting at Warragul in 1952.

Walsh lived in Broadmeadows, West Meadows and Essendon before moving to the bush — a property at Warrenbayne near Benalla in the 1970s — where he farmed and continued to train standardbreds.

He bought a property at Congupna in 1982 to be more in the heartland of trotting and remained there until 1990 when he moved into Shepparton, where he worked for prominent owners and breeders including Kevin Riseley, the O’Donoghues and the late Leo Newbound.

But he always was tinkering with a horse or two of his own in these years, although Concorde Dawn is enough to keep him busy these days.

He has given Concorde Dawn only five starts and two fourths and Prays answered: a fifth leading into the Cobram race suggested a win was coming.

Walsh said he bought Concorde Dawn on the recommendation of prominent young Shepparton horseman Mark Pitt and was grateful for his advice.

He was also loud in his praise for reinsman Neil McCallum, who he said drove a fantastic race to win at Cobram.

‘‘Neil was really a bit surprised just how easy he won,’’ Walsh said.

While Concorde Dawn is no Meadow Lawn, second in a NSW Pacing Derby heat and fourth in the final and the best pacer Walsh said he had trained, he, like a lot of other people, got a huge kick out of the Cobram win.

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