John Ballin lands an albatross

By Jordan Gerrans

It is a Queensland racing family that dates all the way back to the middle of the 1980s and horseman John Ballin was able to add another chapter to the tale on Wednesday at Redcliffe.

In the last race of the evening, Ballin drove Three Under Par to victory over 1780 metres to grab a maiden win with the gelding at just his eight start.

The 65-year-old drove the pacer to victory as well as training him, being the breeder as well as owning the gelding.

It is a rare milestone to see a participant hold all those four titles for a harness winner and Ballin described the triumph as ‘satisfying’ after being along for the journey with Three Under Par since day one. 

Ballin’s association with Three Under Par goes back four generations to 1984.

He trained and drove Sharkie’s Love at tracks across South East Queensland to nine victories and 27 career placings. 

All these years on, broodmare Sharkie’s Love, who has since passed away, is still delivering. 

“That's all I've ever done most of my life is just bred my own,” he said.

“It takes a long while to find out if they're any good or not, of course.

“I raced the mother and the grandparents, all of them, and I've bred a whole lot of them. They all take the same time and effort.

“You've still got to go through the process to find out if they're any good.”

Sharkie’s Love was one of the first horses Ballin ever purchased as a young fella starting out in the industry. 

Starting with Sharkie’s Love, the breeding line goes through Love Game and Cottonwood Valley to get to Three Under Par.

When Ballin was reminded he was driving Sharkie’s Love back in 1984, he laughed that now preparing Three Under Par in 2026 most certainly shows his age. 

Three Under Par won as a $101 shot on Wednesday night after leader Taking Stock broke stride leading into the home straight and Ballin was provided with a dream passage to the victory.

The four-year-old gelding scored by a head.

“He's taken a bit of sorting out,” Ballin said.

“I've finally got him sorted out now and that's just giving him some more confidence the last two starts. He's a big lump of a horse.

“He showed us glimpses every now and then of being all right, but he put in a couple of bad performances.

“Hopefully that problem has been solved now.”

Three Under Par placed at Redcliffe the start prior to his breakthrough winner last week. 

The victory was Ballin’s first as a trainer and driver since the 2019-20 term.

As well as his own pursuits with his small team of horses that he has bred, Ballin has been a long-term track man around the Sunshine State, working at Marburg and Albion Park.

After recently relocating to a new property at Peaks Crossing, he is hopeful of being more prominent in the driving and training ranks looking into 2026 and beyond.

He has recently picked up Kiwi pacer Son Of Doc from New Zealand.

The gelding will have his maiden start in Australia around Redcliffe’s ‘Triangle’ track on Wednesday night.

Son Of Doc has won three of his 11 starts and was regularly driven by leading reinsman Blair Orange before crossing the ditch. 

“He looks like he's going to be all right, I have only had him for a couple of months,” Ballin said of Son Of Doc.

“From what I've seen, he's all right.

“He's got a bit of a motor, so we'll just have to work him out and see how he goes.

“We have drawn the 10 for Wednesday, so I will just have to see how the race plays out, but he's been racing over longer distances over there.

“He looks like he's going to be a fairly tough stayer.

“But, being first-up for a couple of months, I don't want to ask too much of him.

 “So, we'll just have to see how the race plays out.”

Ballin has another recent purchase from NZ that he will unleash at the races in the coming weeks as well as a two-year-old full-sister to Three Under Par he is working with.