Committed support crew arrives in town to barrack for Hustler and Lincoln Farms

Some people get a tattoo of their girlfriend’s or wife’s name. Not Carl Officer.

When it came to celebrating his 40th birthday last month he chose to etch into his forearm the name of his favourite racehorse, Northview Hustler.

And today, Officer is “living the dream”, arriving in Brisbane with his seven Waikato mates in the Four Legs syndicate to watch their hero battle it out in the A$250,000 Blacks A Fake Queensland Championship at Albion Park on Saturday night.

The team are the advance party of 30 owners and supporters of Lincoln Farms who are taking a mid-winter holiday in sunny Queensland to cheer on Northview Hustler as well as Trojan Banner and Make Way in the A$100,000 Queensland Derby.

Carl Officer didn’t hold back with driver Andre Poutama after Northview Hustler won the Spring Cup at Alexandra Park earlier this season.The big team will watch the action from three tables in the Silks marquee near the winning post and Officer is sure the experience will be more fun than watching the Black Caps robbed of the World Cup Final last weekend.

“It’s been a tough week and it’s hard to put words to it still,” says Officer who is so cricket mad he, along with his mates, dressed up in Black Caps tops on his wedding day earlier this year.

“I was going to get a tattoo of a cricket bat and ball and silver fern but went with Hustler as racing is my second great love.”

Officer says his wife Donna wasn’t at all miffed - “she thought it was awesome”.

Officer and his hard-partying crew can hardly believe their good fortune - they have 10% shares in two of Lincoln Farms’ special partnerships - and in the space of half an hour both horses will contest Group I races at Albion Park, their other rep being Trojan Banner.

“It’s hard to believe that our little syndicate can be having so much fun with horses running in these big races.”

For the Four Legs syndicate and their partners in Hustler and Trojan Banner it’s been a rare last few months. In 16 starts since the two pacers joined Al Barnes’s small Marburg stable, 60km west of Brisbane, they’ve won 10 races. And for a while there the tally was 10 from 10.

But it all comes to a head on Saturday night when Officer has a runner in a race named after his favourite horse of all time, Blacks A Fake, Albion Park hero, winner of 72 races, A$4.5 million and four Interdominion Grand Finals.

“He was an iron horse who could do it tough, sit three wide and still win.”

Northview Hustler runs a great lead-up fourth in the Sunshine Sprint behind Ohoka Punter, Colt Thirty One and Watch Pulp Fiction. PHOTO: Dan Costello.From the inside of the second row Northview Hustler thankfully won’t have to do that this time but even though there’s a chance he could end up buried four back on the markers Barnes isn’t worried.

Barnes can see pole runner Eleniark crossed at the start by race favourite Our Uncle Sam or Cash N Flow, putting Hustler three back, and then there’s a chance one of the big guns like Tiger Tara or Colt Thirty One will come round from the back and push him further back.

“But I’d rather that than be out three wide trying to make ground. He can hug the markers and take the short way home.

“We know he’s got a quick 400 metres in him and Hayden will just be looking for the gaps.

“But no matter what happens I think he’ll run top five.

“He’s had a hard four or five weeks but is very fit now and the 2680 metres will suit him much better than last week’s 1660.”

That extra ring on Shannon Flay’s finger was her late dad’s and is her lucky charm at the races.The Hustler finished a terrific fourth in last week’s Sunshine Sprint, snookered in the one-one turning in and unable to find a gap in the run home, finishing with a little petrol in the tank.

Queensland bookies have Hustler seventh favourite at $21, not a quote which will deter the horse’s second biggest fan part-owner Shannon Flay, who will be there wearing her late dad’s ring to bring good luck. Hey, its worked three times in a row with Tommy Lincoln at home, so why not?

Northview Hustler races at 11pm NZ time at Albion Park on Saturday night.