Top driver Greg Sugars has a tricky decision to make for Saturday night’s $100,000 Group 1 South Australian Cup.
Sugars is the regular driver for both Flaming Flutter – a duel Inter Dominion final placegetter – and the emerging Major Crocker.
Both are definite runners at Globe Derby this week.
Flaming Flutter hasn’t raced since his third to Lennytheshark in the Perth Inter Dominion final on December 13.
Major Crocker has been freshened since emphatically winning the consolation of the Perth series on the same night.
“I’m leaning towards Flaming Flutter because I’ve driven him before when they have clashed,” Sugars said.
“There isn’t much between them. Major Crocker is on the up and developing into a genuine Grand Circuit horse.”
Although Flaming Flutter is safely in the Victoria Cup field, Major Crocker will need a big showing in Adelaide this week to stay right on the radar.
The jostle for spots in what shapes as a very strong Victoria Cup continues to gain momentum.
This weekend will be huge with major races in Perth (Fremantle Cup Friday night), Adelaide (SA Cup Saturday night) and Sunday’s Horsham Cup.
Emerging Victorian star Hectorjayjay is one of the many fighting for one of the borderline spots in the Victoria Cup.
He still has some work to do despite a fighting second in last Saturday night’s Group 3 Geelong Cup.
The 4YO Breeders Crown champ led – which isn’t really his go – overraced through the middle stages and was only nabbed late by It Is Billy along the sprint lane.
The fact remains Hectorjayjay is winless in three runs so far this season.
It Is Billy, another emerging Victorian talent, mile rated a slick 1min56.6sec for the 2570m mobile, which smashed 1.2sec off the track record Arden Rooney set last year.
The other eye-catching run came from much-travelled stayer Im Corzin Terror, who sustained a long three-wide run for third at his first run since a failed NZ Cup campaign.
Kept Under Wraps has always been a very smart horse, but he just may have gone to another level.
It’s fair to say wins don’t get much better or more impressive than his crushing display in last Saturday night’s time-honoured Group 3 Inter City Pace final (2422m) at Maitland.
Co-trainer Luke McCarthy drove with extreme confidence, declaring war on the leader and main danger My Chachingchaching from the 1200m and having him beaten 400m from home.
Kept Under Wraps ran a 27.8sec split from the 1200m to 800m and then surged to the lead down the back straight and ran right away to win by 27.5m.
Times don’t mean much around such a notoriously slow Maitland track, but Kept Under Wraps did take 0.3sec off Ardghal’s track record.
The four-year-old has won all five runs this campaign for a career record of 12 wins and seven seconds from just 24 starts.
Like so many other star four-year-olds, it is now onto the Chariots Of Fire for Kept Under Wraps.
There is no doubt young Kiwi-bred pacer Cruz Bromac will be a major Chariots Of Fire player.
The Dean Braun-trained turned heads during two Group 1 runs in Perth during the Inter Dominion series despite only finishing eighth and fourth.
That’s because Cruz Bromac looked hopelessly uncomfortable around the tight Gloucester Park track.
The son of Falcon Seelster returned for his first run since and, albeit dropping back hugely in grade, he looked terrific winning by 26m in a 1min58.2sec mile rate for 2100m at Geelong last Saturday night.
Cruz Bromac, who now boasts five wins from just eight starts, led by a clear space for most of the race and charged home in splits of 56.4 and 28.3sec.
“He goes well, doesn’t he,” part-owner Harvey Kaplan said. “He’ll have one more run in the final of this race in Victoria then it’s off to Sydney for a lead-up to the Chariots.”
Another former Kiwi to win well at Geelong was Matt Craven’s recent import Emmanuel, who sat behind the leader and sprint-laned to beat a handy field at his first Aussie run.
What was supposed to be a night to celebrate harness racing at the NSW country track of Leeton turned into a shambles.
Sadly for the well-supported and popular club, its biggest annual meeting – the Breeders Plate – will be remembered for everything that went wrong.
The club just couldn’t take a trick with issues including a faulty mobile starting gate, ugly falls and then a blackout late in the night which delayed the meeting 30 minutes.
It was a shame, but something which Harness Racing NSW also needs to work closely with the club to ensure doesn’t happen again … at least to that extent.
The main event itself was the lowlight when the strongly fancied Jovial Rock looked like leading from the pole, but confusion reigned when both the green and red lights went on the mobile at the starting point.
Drivers didn’t know what to do, the mobile didn’t pull away from the field and two horses fell, including Jovial Rock, who required treatment and was then scratched from the re-run.
When they finally ran the race, top Victorian trainer Peter Manning won it with Easter Jolt (by Village Jolt) by a whisker over Redblank Blaze (by Rocknroll Hanover) in a moderate 1min59.3sec mile rate for 1758m.
Manning has been one of Leeton’s biggest supporters, winning the Breeders Plate four previous times, but not since Cullens Crown in 2006.
The other bright light of the night came when Victoria Derby hopeful Zee Dana – trained by Amanda Turnbull and driven by partner Nathan Jack – brilliantly won first-up.
Zee Dana led, cruised around and dashed home in a sizzling 26.7sec closing quarter to win by 22.4m at his first start since finishing 11th in the Breeders Crown 2YO final on August 30.
Zee Dana, part-owned by Manly NRL star Brett Stewart, has raced just eight times for five wins and two seconds.
Moving on after losing a champion like Keystone Del leave your stable can’t be easy, but that’s just what Nicole Molander is doing.
Molander continues to build on her impressive strike rate and snared another win with former Kiwi trotting mare Dead Cat Bounce in the feature trot at Geelong last Saturday night.
The daughter of Revenue has posted three wins and a second from just five starts since crossing the Tasman to join Molander’s barn.
Dead Cat Bounce, superbly driven by Chris Alford, worked to the front quickly from a 10m handicap and always looked in control.
Michael Doltoff made a winning return to training ranks last week.
Doltoff, who trained a long line of juvenile stars including Captain Joy, has taken over as trainer of the very exciting four-year-old Fake Smile.
The son of Grinfromeartoear returned from a spell and dug very deep to maintain his unbeaten record at Bendigo last Wednesday night.
Despite sitting parked, Fake Smile was too strong for a gallant leader Arts Stride in a slick 1min56.4sec mile rate for 2150m. He ran home in 55.9 and 28.2sec.
Fake Smile is out of former top Fake Left filly Counterfeit Girl, who won 14 of her 32 starts and earned $118,769.
Counterfeit Girl has also excelled in the breeding barn with all her seven foals to race winning, most notably: Devilish Smile (20 wins, $282,091), Artificial (15 wins, $209,723) and Em Maguane (13 wins, $110,259).
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