gaita pullicino

[the galah]

flicked on tv today ,channel surfed and landed on a harness race in south australia .gaita pullicino was the winning driver.

it was won by a horse named regal attire,who was out of a mare that had originated from the usa. regal attire was bred by the breckon brothers and won just under $100,000 in nz when traind by purdon/cullen.Regal attire is a half brother to high gait, who was a good horse as well. Well regal attire has now ended up racing in south australia and his lifetime earnings are just under $250,000.hes still going strong and seems to have plenty of racing left in him as hes still only 7.

what struck me was gaita pullicino must now be in her mid to late sixties, but still seems to have the same desire and skill she had donkey years ago.Shes certainly had an interesting career with many stints on the sideline, but she is defintely one of south australias best. She is the type of personality that it would be nice to see her driving in new zealand one day in one of those invited drivers series.

her colourful history has included being on a training property when she wasn't supposed to be,caught hiding in a cupboard under the kitchen sink and another time punching a stablehand who had given evidence against her in a doping case and getting a relative to join in .

but in recent years she has been keeping her nose clean and drives very well in south australia. Its a wonder greg bennett doesn't try moving there.

pullicino has a sister rita burnett who still drives and trains in victoria,she must also be in her 60's and another sister who i think is married to a p weidenbach,or some name like that.

actually rita burnett had  a strange case ,heard just a couple of weeks ago. The horse appropriately named " i'm the mighty gramps" returned a positive to dexamethasone twice. Apparantly her vet had told her to treat her horse with the anti inflammatory via a nebulizer,but stop 4 days before a race.Well she obviously treated it after that. The strange thing was,after being told her horse had returned a positive ,she then went and treated the same horse,the same way with the same drug 2 weeks later and got another positive. Her previous positives had been 20 years prior. Anyway she got fined $11,000.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by the galah