An unexpected offer has Brittany Graham comfortable ‘Trackside’
The former face of the sport on Australia’s Sky Racing is now happy calling New Zealand home.
by Adam Hamilton
It is just over a year since Brittany Graham stunned Australian harness racing and took a huge leap of faith.
The face of the sport in Australia moved to New Zealand.
Many thought it was a fad that wouldn’t last, but Graham has never been happier and now calls New Zealand home, literally.
“When I went back [to Australia] for the Miracle Mile a couple of months ago, people asked me how it was going [in New Zealand] and if I’d moved back to Australia,” Graham said. “The easiest answer was to say I’d bought my own house in New Zealand, it’s home now.”
Graham, 30, traveled all around Australia and many harness racing countries in the world through her role with Australia’s Sky Racing, so she had a good insight into New Zealand.
“The offer to move to New Zealand and work for Trackside [the country’s exclusive racing broadcaster] was a bolt from the blue,” she said.
“But it was sort of a ‘right place at the right time thing.’ I was 29, ready for something different and a new challenge.
“I’d been very fortunate with all the opportunities Sky had given me, but I’ve always had a motto to be open to new opportunities and give things a crack.
“I won’t deny I spent a lot of time thinking about it and weighing it all up, but the offer sounded so great and I said yes.
“I felt it would help me see more of the world, meet new people, and challenge myself more.”
Some Kiwis were quick to warn Graham the buzz of New Zealand Cup Week and energy of Cambridge’s Night of Champions — which had been her experience so far — wasn’t the norm for 52 weeks of the year.
“I guess I knew that anyway,” she said. “That’s actually been the best part of the move, I’ve fallen in love with all the other things about harness racing in New Zealand… the country racing, the fact it is more mainstream over here and people will ask you about it when you’re walking down the street.
“There’s just such a strong community aspect to harness racing in New Zealand.”
That’s amplified by the fact Graham is a horseperson first and Australasia’s premier media talent second.
“Let me explain that a bit,” she said. “The other day, one of the [TV] producers asked if I bet and I said I don’t even have a betting account.
“My passion is racing and the horses, I get a buzz from being up close to the action and knowing the people involved.
“I love tipping winners, it’s a big part of my job. But my satisfaction comes if someone stops me to say they backed [bet] from something I said, I don’t need to have backed it myself, too.
“Another buzz is if a trainer says they noticed me spot gear change they’ve made and that comes from being a horseperson myself.”
Graham genuinely is a horseperson. She’s driven almost 320 winners and trained 42. Her father, Darrel, has been one of Queensland’s most successful trainers.
She drove her former talented trotter Majestic Harry to run fifth in the 2022 Melbourne Inter Dominion final.
Although driving was a lot more frequent in Australia with the family stable, Brittany donned the silks a couple of weeks back for a “pinch yourself” moment to win on her own trotter, Tetrick (nicknamed Tim because that’s who he’s named after) at New Zealand’s premier track, Addington, in Christchurch.
“That was really special,” she said. “I’d been in New Zealand a few months when I went back to Australia to cover last year’s [Brisbane] Inter Dominion and told dad how I was struggling a bit during a cold winter over there [in New Zealand] and missed [working with] the horses.
“I helped him out a bit while I was back over there and that’s when we hatched the plan for me to take ‘Tim,’ who I bought as a yearling, back over to New Zealand.
“It really was a turning point. Since then, I’ve been going out to Cran Dalgety’s stables most mornings, five mornings a week most weeks, training Tim and helping with other horses.
“I’d just hoped to win a race on a grass track over here and that would be a thrill, but to drive him myself and win a race at Addington was incredible.”
But don’t expect to see Brittany spend lots more time back in the sulky on race days.
“No, and I probably won’t even drive him much, either,” she said. “That opportunity really just fell into place. It was the first race, my mum [Linda] was over [in New Zealand] and Carter [Dalgety, regular driver] was away driving in Auckland.
“That was a heck of a thrill, but I get a huge buzz just watching him race now, too.
“The majority of time he races, I’m working and media work is my priority now. I’ve made that known.
“When I was 17 or 18, I wanted to be a driver, but gradually the media opportunities grew and I grew to enjoy the sport I love in different ways.
“Sure, there’s a time when I’d love to have been a driver but I probably didn’t quite have it in me. I’d get quite worked up before I’d drive, whereas the media work is sheer enjoyment. I guess I’ve got the best of both worlds with the horses being my hobby now.”
Tetrick has won four races in New Zealand and Brittany’s dream is of him to race during New Zealand Cup Week in November.
“I’ve seen the thrill having a runner, let alone a winner, gives people in Cup Week,” she said. “I’d love that. It’s already an amazing, albeit busy week, for me but having Tetrick run as well would be incredible. I don’t care what sort of race it’s in.”
Unsurprisingly, Brittany says working her first full Cup Week for Trackside last November has been her highlight.
“I’d really only been as an attendee before, but to be such a big part of it and see how amazingly big the build-up and work behind the scenes is for Trackside was amazing,” she said.
“It goes further back to the lead-up weeks with Kaikoura Cup and the World Drivers’ Championship during Cup time. It’s busy, but excitingly busy if you know what I mean.
“It really drove home to me how passionate and hard-working our Trackside people are. It’s a 24/7 business and the people I work with make my job and life so much more enjoyable.”
Brittany thinks the Aussie dominance in New Zealand’s major races during her time in New Zealand has helped.
“It did pretty much from the start for my confidence and credibility,” she said. “I’d really just started when Leap To Fame led an Aussie dominance at Cambridge’s Night of Champion last year and I knew all the horses, trainers, and drivers so well.”
But Brittany, like many, can see the tide changing.
“I think this crop of New Zealand 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds is outstanding and going to turn things around, which shouldn’t surprise us,” she said.
“Got The Chocolates is the best of them, he really could be anything, but Marketplace, The Lazarus Effect, and Jumal are really exciting, too.
“Hopefully a couple of them [maybe Marketplace and Jumal] might go to the Brisbane Carnival in July.”
That’s when Brittany returns home again for the two weeks of the Inter Dominion series, Leap To Fame’s quest to win it for a third time, and a stack of other feature trotting and pacing races.
She also longs to travel even further, back to the U.S., where she has been several times and made some close friends, led by trainer Nancy Takter.
“I was 19 when I went for the first time as part of a Young Achiever Award sponsored by Kevin and Kay Seymour,” Brittany said. “I got to work for Ross Croghan for a month and drove in a race at Chester.
“I went back again to work [on the coverage] at the North American Cup and just a couple of years ago, I went just to hang out and travel around with Nancy, which was so good.
“We met during COVID when I did a video interview with her for Sky. We struck up a friendship and have been close ever since.
“We race a young trotter in Australia together called Howdy Mate, who has got plenty of ability but is doing a few things wrong at the moment.
“I hope to get back over to the U.S. next, but for now I’ll be having plenty of 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. alarms set so I can get up and watch their big races now that we’re heading into the moment.”
