Driscoll plans to mine his European contacts, having revolutionised Australian harness racing with the introduction of French horses, to transform Yabby Dam into a dual-code operation.

The astute owner-breeder — with Oaks and Derby dreams — has enlisted Ballarat trainers Archie Alexander and Matt Cumani to spearhead the potentially lucrative switch.

“I appreciate that a lot of the Victorian (racing) industry survives well on sprinters, but I really do like the middle distance, staying types,” Driscoll said.

“Hopefully I can use some of the connections I have in France to make inroads into that area.

“I’d love to win an Oaks, that type of race, given I’m a keen breeder, and nice middle distance type staying races.”

Driscoll has started to “muck around” with 10 local buys, including a modest but improving Dawn Approach filly in Cumani’s care, and an unraced Zoustar prospect in Alexander’s yard.

For the foreseeable future Yabby Dams trainer Anton Golino will oversee the breaking in and educating of weanlings and yearlings before they go to Alexander and Cumani.

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“If we do enough homework and don’t get ahead of ourselves we can do OK,” Driscoll said.

“Not rushing out now and doing anything silly.

“The idea would be to build on that and buy a few broodmares, what I’d like to do is develop a really good broodmare band and specialise in fillies and developing fillies, hope to get a bit of black type and then may sell them off.

“You can’t do something like this overnight, I’ve spent seven or eight years building up the harness side and appreciate it will take a good deal of study and effort to shift across and have a stable that does both.”

Driscoll’s foray into thoroughbreds, if successful, could entice other big players in the harness racing industry to do the same.

“This industry needs to change, but I’m not sure it’s ready or willing to embrace it,” Driscoll said.

“I don’t want to get bitter, so I’m scaling back. I still love my trotters.”