Love (30) reined home Belkmyster in the tightest-assessed pacing heat at yesterday's trials, held in cold and showery conditions, giving him his first trials driving win.
Love first began driving at trials and work-outs in December 2011, and steered home a winner at the work-outs in July 2012 behind Riveria Franco.
Like many harness racing participants, Love had the bug from a young age.
''I grew up with horses all the time. Dad had horses and my brother [Damian] trains horses in Christchurch,'' Love said.
Love has been helping Westwood Beach trainer Graeme Anderson for a week, and hopes he can mix studies and horses this year.
Love has been working as a preschool teacher at the University of Otago Preschool.
''I've got a year off for professional studies, so I've got some time to do horses this year.''
Love is keen to keep driving at the trials and may consider applying for an amateur licence further down the track ''but we'll see''.
Belkmyster was impressive in running down Starsky's Dream who led the three-horse field up, and Love could notice the difference between sitting behind a four-time winner such as Belkmyster and a maiden pacer.
''He's the best-graded horse I've driven, so you can certainly feel it.''
Belkmyster will start from the inside of the front line in the feature mobile pace at Forbury Park on Thursday, while Starsky's Dream has drawn wide in a c1 2200m pace.
The weather was always going to make qualifying hard and so it proved, as the younger horses battled into a blustery wind down the back straight.
Kid Cullen, trained by Jonny Cox and Amber Hoffman, finished off his qualifying trial well to win by eight lengths, although she was 4.5sec outside the qualifying time of 2min 58.3sec. The daughter of Klondike Kid is owned by thoroughbred identity Brian Anderton and the estate of Bryan Kennedy.
Waikouaiti trainer Denis O'Connell has taken over the preparation of Sundon mare Martini from Darryn Simpson. O'Connell has had the 5yr-old for about six weeks and has been training her on the beach at Waikouaiti.
''This is the first time I've had her on the track,'' O'Connell said.
He will look to start the winner of one race at Waikouaiti on March 18.
Hazel Alice keeps creeping closer to clearing the non-winners grade and her trial yesterday suggests she is on the right path.
She was a handful for Mosgiel trainer Craig Buchan earlier this season, but she got around Waikouaiti last month without breaking.
''She's getting better all the time now. I can do a lot more cart work with her now,'' Buchan said.
''She's only 3, but she'll be all right next year. I'll give her another two starts [from the unruly] then I'll start her off the front again.''
