Concession driver Matt Cormick and renowned trainer Lee Evison both have harness racing ‘in the blood’. Picture: Luke Plummer.
By Sarah Pearson
LEE Evison and Matt Cormick are a winning harness racing team.
Trainer Evison and up-and-coming concession driver Cormick have been working together for the past three and a half years.
Both have strong family backgrounds in the industry.
Evison said harness racing got “in the blood”, which motivated both men to turn their passion into a career.
Despite the difference in their roles, Cormick and Evison are very much alike when it comes to racing, and their preferred outcome.
“Everyone’s in it to win,” Cormick said.
“No matter how many times you win, you always want more,” Evison added.
Cormick ’s first win as a concession driver remains his most cherished memory.
The day was 18 April 2007, Bullantic was the horse and it won race four at Cranbourne.
Bullantic was trained by Evison and paid a whopping $22 for the win. It was Cormick ’s first drive for Evison and only his fifth race.
Cormick has recorded 14 wins so far this season, the most recent with Town Cruzer, a horse he co-owns with Evison.
Evison has had plenty of success in his 12-year training career.
“Winning the Bendigo Cup with Hushed World in 2000 is probably one of the highlights,” he said.
Most of the horses Evison is training are two and three-year-olds, with three-year-old filly Ymbro Nif showing the most promise.
“Ymbro Nif qualified for last year’s Breeder’s Crown final, but was unfortunately injured during the race,” Evison said.
“She’s on the comeback trail though, with two wins from two trial runs.”
Evison’s favourite place to run his horses is at the Cranbourne Racing Complex.
He sponsored last year’s Trotter’s Cup in a clear show of his support for the Cranbourne harness racing community.
Cormick now drives 85 to 90 per cent of Evison’s runners, and is also stable foreman at Evison’s Longwarry training stables.
The two clearly have a lot of respect for one another.
“Matt is very self-motivated, I enjoy working with him,” Evison said.
Cormick said Evison had taught him a lot since he joined the stables, but there was always more to learn.
“Lee’s my boss, but he’s also a great bloke. I wouldn’t have won a race without him,” he said.
