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JODI QUINLAN By Neale Donnelley It doesn’t seem all that long ago that punters refused to back female jockeys or harness racing drivers. While there are many successful women jockeys, none have taken the step right to the top of their profession but in the harness racing world that is not the case. Kerryn Gath is a record breaking lady driver with great talent and an extraordinary ability to drive winner after winner. She has been the leading harness racing driver in Australia for the past two seasons, most recently despite missing three months of the season through injury. And yet, she is not alone. Another name that has taken punters’ attention, and for all the right reasons, is a young lady named Jodi Quinlan.	A ‘veteran’ at 27, Jodi says she’s OLD now, but her rise through the ranks has been due to dedication, hard work, and an undeniable talent. During the 2000-2001 season, Jodi clearly had her best year, driving 82 winners. She was thrilled with that and as she had done every year before, set herself a goal going into the new season. “It’s pretty simple every year. All I set out to do is drive one winner more than the previous year. I don’t know what I’m going to aim for next year,” Jodi says now, laughing, having just finished the season with 131 winners! “I guess I’d like to just drive 100 winners for the season, “ she said, “that’s a good achievement in itself. The past year has just been fantastic.” “You’d never think things would fall into place like they did, but the winners kept coming and I kept getting on some nice horses,” she adds. The Jodi Quinlan story is one that could so easily have seen her a	success in the thoroughbred world. Her father, the late Charlie Morley, trained the 1984 Moonee Valley Gold Cup winner Holsam, also winner of the Moonee Valley Stakes and the Bagot Handicap. Born, bred and raised in Gippsland, Jodi and her family moved to Mornington where she was educated at the Mornington Secondary College. “My mother insisted on me finishing school and I completed my VCE, and I’m glad I did. All the time, though, I would go to the stables before school.” Jodi’s uncles Gary Quinlan and Geoff Walker had already established themselves as harness racing trainers, and Jodi was keen to follow. “People kept telling me I could be a jockey and I rode some trackwork but I was always more interested in the harness horses,” she says. Jodi is still a diminutive 52kg, and does admit if she had been as successful as a jockey as she has been as a harness racing driver, “I’d be a billionaire now.”
Jodi Quinlan would like to drive 100 winners for the season.
Her father died at 60 from cancer, when Jodi was just 15, and after completing her education at Mornington, her family moved back to Drouin in Gippsland. While finishing her schooling, Jodi pursued her aim to become a driver, gaining her junior drivers licence at 16. She drove her first winner at only her fifth race drive, on a horse called Zephyr Lad. It was trained by her uncle Gary and it is that combination that is primarily responsible for Jodi’s rise to the top. She was just 17 and the Jodi Quinlan story had begun. A few short years later Jodi won the Victorian Junior Drivers Championship at Moonee Valley, automatically pitting her against the best in the National Driving Championship. She went to Perth to represent Victoria, and although she finished well down the order, she says it was a great experience. All the while, talented young women like Kerryn Gath and Jodi Quinlan were slowly showing the hardened punters that they were good enough to mix it with the men — and good enough to beat them regularly. Jodi believes she no longer has to prove herself. “If you’re good enough on the track you hold your own. If you respect your fellow drivers they’ll respect you, it’s as simple as that,” she says. During the quite remarkable season that ended on August 31 (the harness season ends a month later than the thoroughbred season), Jodi drove some top class horses, and won some big races on them. Talented mare Pete’s Dream won the Graham Goffin Memorial at Moonee Valley, and the George Johnson Classic in Hobart — two high quality mares races on the Australian calendar.	She names Derby standard colt Brae Side Seelster as a potential topliner of the future, and she also had great success during the season on Cyclone Force, Sunset Soky, Lagoon Lady, Open Holme and Shield Of Honour. It was on Shield Of Honour that she experienced probably her biggest disappointment of the season. He went into the $250,000 Australian Gold Final at Moonee Valley for the 2Y0 colts one of the favourites, and after he led around the first turn, was clearly the horse to beat. He was a beaten horse 400 metres out however, pulling up with leg troubles. “ I’ve led in the last two Australian Gold Finals on horses who had a real winning chance and both times they have been beaten. I really thought Shield Of Honour would win once he led, but it wasn’t to be,” she said. Jodi Quinlan is now also a trainer. She has eight horses in work and prepares them out of Melton trainer Merv Williamson’s property. A major part of Jodi’s success last season was certainly due to the training success of Gary Quinlan’s stable. He and his wife Debbie prepared 52 winners and Jodi reckons she drove at least 40 of them. “ They had a great year and I drove most of the winners. They really have some nice horses there now and Gary tells all the owners that if he trains their horses I will be driving them, which is a great support.” Last month Harness Racing Victoria announced some rather major changes to the racing product in Victoria, and Jodi has definite opinions on many of them. She thinks going back to the old push-out rule for drivers is a positive move, and she believes that the reduction in standing start races is a good thing.	“ They are going to have to police the whip rules because I hate to see horses flogged,” she added. “You see some blokes give their horses a hammering and I hate that.” “ Whips are in the public eye all the time and they need to get tough on the people who abuse them,” she said. As yet Jodi hasn’t driven a Group One winner, and that is one of her aims this season. “Again, I’d like to drive just one more winner than last year but that might be a bit tough, so if I get to 100 I’ll be happy. But I would really like to get a Group One — they are very, very hard to get.” Jodi has just bought herself a house at Kurunjang, near Melton, and is planning a long and successful career with horses. “ I’m happy doing what I’m doing, “ she enthused — “I love it!” Jodi Quinlan. Photos from Harness Racing Weekly.