Award winning sports journalist Sean Cunningham is the latest addition to the media team at Tabcorp Park Menangle’s harness racing centre.
Cunningham, a former sport editor for the local Advertiser newspapers in Macarthur and Wollondilly for almost a decade, is pleased to have a hands-on role and be part of a sport he has always been interested in since emigrating to Australia in 1991.
Cunningham first became familiar with harness racing in Wagga when he worked alongside Wagga Harness Racing’s CEO Graeme White, who was the racing editor with the local newspaper, the Wagga Advertiser.
A 52-year-old Scotsman, Cunningham recalled his first major encounter with harness racing, which coincided with the opening of the prestigious track at Menangle Park in 2008.
The track’s opening day featured a giveaway prize of a drive around the circuit in a dual-seated gig.
So, to receive a true experience of what was on offer, Cunningham volunteered to sit beside and place his trust in an inexperienced teenage reinsman at that time.
He described his inaugural brush with harness racing as ”staring at a horse’s backside, beside a wee boy, eating dirt being kicked up from the track”.
Acclaimed driver, 23-year-old Robbie Morris, who Cunningham dubbed as the Tom Cruise of harness racing when highlighting Morris’ Rising Star award win a few years later, eased the journo’s fears on the day.
After steering round 12 laps of the Menangle Park track, Cunningham said Morris had helped to inspire him to take a further interest in the world of harness racing.
Cunningham was a keen supporter of harness racing and a friend to Tabcorp Park Menangle during his time as a local newspaper sport editor, reporting on many of the sport’s big races and highlighting the locals’ achievements.
And he is keen to continue to promote the sport.
• Contact Sean via email at: SCunningham@nswhrc.com.au
