Natalie Rasmussen (front row at right) and her fellow competitors in the 1996 Australasian Young Drivers Championship which was held in Western Australia
Champion New Zealand reinswoman Natalie Rasmussen is heading to Perth to drive 2017 Golden Nugget Championship winner Ultimate Machete in the $300,000 Group One Retravision Fremantle Cup on Friday night.
The Allstars Stable, which has dominated harness racing at Group level since Natalie Rasmussen joined forces with Mark Purdon, has both Inter Dominion champion Lazarus and Ultimate Machete engaged on Friday night.
Rasmussen drove Ultimate Machete when he raced on the outside of Tiger Tara before winning the Group One New Zealand Free For All on November 17th.
Ultimate Machete won the Group One Yes Loans Classic at Gloucester Park the following Friday (November 24th) and a fortnight later he won the Group One Golden Nugget Championship on Inter Dominion Grand Final night when his stablemate Lazarus won the ultimate prize in harness racing.
Rasmussen has driven Ultimate Machete 14 times for nine wins and five seconds and that string is unlikely to be broken with Ultimate Machete drawn in barrier two on Friday night.
Natalie Rasmussen’s record as a driver in New Zealand is the best on that side of the Tasman with her 547 drives in New Zealand yielding 204 winners and 172 placings and stakes of $6,286,467 and an incredible UDR of .5196.
She is also a four-time Inter Dominion winner as both trainer and driver of the legendary Blacks A Fake.
Natalie Rasmussen last drove at Gloucester Park on 14th May 2004 when she won a Lady Drivers Invitation Stakes. The race was a support event for the WA Oaks that night and Rasmussen drove Whitehouse Whisper for trainer David Pyburne.
Two other interstate drivers in Emma Turnbull, who finished second driving the Carol Warwick trained Cee Jay Blaze, and Natalie’s sister Kylie Rasmussen, who was unplaced, also took part in the race.
Natalie Rasmussen’s first trip to Perth was for the 1996 Australasian Young Drivers Championship which was won by Craig Goldfinch (WA) with the final race being held at Gloucester Park on Inter Dominion Grand Final night.
Other young drivers to take part in that particular Championship were Victorian Jodi Quinlan who later won a Miracle Mile with Smoken Up and New Zealander Brendon Hill who later achieved fame as the trainer of multi-millionaire New Zealand pacer Monkey King.
