Alan Parker | Photo: Gloucester Park
As a six-year-old living in post WWII East Perth Ed Dewar discovered that he was allergic to horses when he visited the stable of trotting trainer Frank Harrold near Gloucester Park.
Some years later he began attending Gloucester Park while still a student on his path to becoming a doctor.
Dr Dewar first dabbled in horse ownership in 1971 and his first win as an owner came courtesy of the Mambrino Globe mare Grazinuta at Pinjarra in 1973 with trainer Ron Buswell at the reins.
That same year Ed Dewar and a group of friends established Tullamour Stud which he later sold to Roy Annear as a home for Adios Vic and Romeo Hanover when Annear bought the pair of US superstars to Perth for stud duties.
In 1973 Ed had brought the legendary Halwes, and his owner Aub Wesley, to Perth to stand at stuf and it was a fateful decision that was to change Ed Dewar’s involvement with trots.
He had sold a property at Darkan and, with his appetite for the breeding side of the industry having been whetted, was on the lookout for prospective broodmares.
Ed was offered the former Victorian mare Remit as a racing and later breeding proposition and Aub Wesley, who knew the Victorian owner, agreed that she was worth a try.
Remit won 11 races in WA for Ed and placed in an Empress Stakes and Breeders Stakes but it was as a broodmare that she really excelled.
A tick over 100 individual winners, including 26 individual $100,000 earners, of more than 885 races trace directly to Remit and while Ed, who has been a regular seller at WA Yearling Sales, hasn’t been directly involved in each of those winners his personal record is remarkable.
Ed Dewar has been involved in the breeding of 211 invividual winners of 1278 races in Western Australia alone.
While some of those winners have been in partnership with friends, 1142 wins as an individual breeder ranks Ed Dewar as the leading individual breeder in WA with former WATA President J P Stratton next on 1056 wins.
Only J P Stratton (503) and Royalstar Farm (428) have bred more Gloucester Park winners than Ed Dewar (424).
Ed Dewar has bred the winners of 23 Group One races with 20 of them in his home State, two in Victoria and one in Tasmania.
They include four 2yo Golden Slipper Stakes winners, four 2yo Pearl Classic winners, two WA Derby winners and two WA Oaks winners including Benesari Lane earlier this year.
A daughter of Remit in Fiscal Miss was twice named Australian Broodmare of the Year and her daughter Whitbys Miss Penny was Australian 2yo Pacer of the Year and Australian 3yo Pacer of the Year.
It is said that timing is everything and Ed Dewar may have been a little early in his purchase of Remit.
Remit was the first foal from the Fallacy mare Gold Heritage.
Eleven years later Gold Heritage’s final foal was named Time Lag.
Time Lag was to achieve fame as the grand-dam of Scuse Me – the ancestress of Charles Roberts remarkable breed which includes Adore Me, Have Faith In Me, Christen Me, Dream About Me and current WA star Magnifient Storm.
Ed Dewar’s record as a breeder will continue to grow as, on his way to last night’s Gloucester Park Harness Racing Annual General Meeting to receive his Life Membership, he was expecting a semen delivery for one of his mares.
Gloucester Park records a profit
At Wednesday night’s Annual General Meeting a profit of almost $400,000 after depreciation was announced by Gloucester Park President John Burt.
It was a noteworthy result as there were no major non-racing events held at the track due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The results of the 2021 Gloucester Park Harness Racing elections for committee were announced and it saw the three sitting committeemen in Alan Parker (139 votes), Rob Gartrell (129) and John Burt (113) re-elected ahead of former committeeman Maurice Grubisa (63).
Published courtesy of NZ Harness Express