The late Perc Verning enjoyed a lifetime of involvement in harness racing, including watching his son Ian "Spud" Verning compete on the Paceway, before Perc passed away back in 2014 aged 94.

"Old Perc was good for the industry," said Tony Missen. "He was always around; he was always at the meetings."

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The Narrator is a Western Terror-Rayannes Phoenix five-year-old mare trained by Tony Missen. She won on debut for the stables on Thursday.

"I have only had her for the week and after what I saw in her trackwork, I thought if she got to the front, they wouldn't catch her," said Missen.

"She was pretty short and started as the $2.00 favourite," he added.

Tom Ison drove the former Canberra pacer.

Ison made the most of every stride after commencing from the four barrier.

"It was awesome to win the Perc Verning Memorial," said Ison. "I did a lot of work with Spud and drove his good mare Alyeska Dream for him. Sadly I didn't get to meet old Perc."

From the start, Ison kept pushing forward to gain the lead and sustain race pressure - firstly from Diesel Don (Brad Elder) from the Ken Natty stables.

"I was surprised with the mare's run," said Ison. "I didn't know anything about her.

"Tony has done a good job with the mare in the short time he has had her. We had to do a bit of work to get to the front and then Diesel Don was sitting to the outside of us

"When the bell rang, Acoltnamedsu (Jake Hughes) was then racing outside of us."

The race pressure was of no concern to The Narrator.

"It was an easy drive for me - we were cruising and it was a quick run in the third quarter (28.5sec)," Ison said, "and then we put a gap in the field and got home nice."

The Narrator went on for a 17.7m win over the Greg Coney-trained Acoltnamedsu - with Under Other (Jamie Donovan) a neck away in third place.

Ison, who had three wins at Maitland on Monday afternoon, picked up a winning double at Tamworth after success behind the Stacie Elliott-trained Corporal Jujon earlier in the meeting.

It was also a training double for Missen after the win of My Kinda Justus in the Tamworth Trophy Supplies Pace.

Missen trains My Kinda Justus for his wife Joy and son Daniel who is known for his great work at 88.9FM.

"She went like a rocket today," said Missen, who engaged reinsman Blake Hughes to take the drive.

Missen dedicated the win of My Kinda Justus to his late brother Darren, who had passed away the evening before the meeting.

"I told Blake if he won the race to raise the whip as a salute to Darren," added Missen. The salute was duly carried out.

After racing in the one-by-one, Hughes elected to make a three-wide run around the final turn, to come away for a 10.9m win over Laker (Caitlin McElhinney). Penny A Packet (Jemma Coney) was a head away in third place.

The Missen stables came close to making it a winning treble at the meeting, with I'm So Better just missing out on being in the winner's circle when beaten 2.5m by Rolamax (Dean Chapple).

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