The lure of southern riches has proved too strong for Queensland trotter Our Overanova.
With the Victorian Summer of Glory carnival set to launch this weekend and with the squaregaiting talent at an all-time high, fans have never had it better.
And with this amazing depth spread across the southern hemisphere and most of it converging on Melbourne in the coming months, spots in these feature events will be as hard to gain as victory itself.
The Gr.1 $300,000 Great Southern Star on March 12 at TABCORP Park, Melton is the main event.
Originally, connections of Our Overanova were planning on starting in the Gr.3 $20,000 Aldebaran Park Melton Trotters Cup on Saturday week at Melton but a change of plans occurred following the decision from the Grant Dixon stable to chase a spot in the Victoria Derby.
Dixon has both Frankie Rocks and Leos Best engaged in heats of the Derby series at Ballarat this weekend, therefore, the team is flying south this week.
“It doesn’t really change too much for us with Nova, rather than starting next week, we will now start in a heat of the trotting championship instead. He’s come back in good form following his let-up and we were always heading to Melbourne to chase some of the bigger races.” Owner Greg Mitchell said.
Our Overanova starts in a heat of the Gr.1 $50,000 Apco Australasian Trotting Championship series, the final is scheduled for next week at Melton.
The Monarchy gelding has won two of his three starts this campaign, both victories coming under mobile conditions while his defeat came after starting from a 50m handicap at Albion Park.
“The mobile start victories have been really good, he was just outside of the track record first-up after racing without cover while his latest victory was also very thorough. I was hoping to see him crush them but that’s not really his style.
“Looking back at his sole defeat this campaign, we backed up him within a week after recording such fast time and he also had the big handicap. It was a little ambitious on our part but he’s taken no harm from it and we’re good to go this weekend.”
Our Overanova is no stranger to Melbourne after filling placing’s in the E B Cochran Trotters Cup, Uncle Petrika FFA and the Bruce Skeggs Memorial Trotters Cup last year.
Now the seasoned trotter returns and is ready to take on the best.
And he faces the best this weekend with boom Kiwi performer Monbet drawn in his heat, the Greg Hope trained star is a winner of his past four starts which includes three features.
“There’s no hiding anymore, not at this level and you must be prepared to beat the best if you’re going to win the best races. Monbet looks very exciting while Arboe looks like she could be just as good, if not better but we were always going to meet this grade of trotter at some stage.
“I think our guy will race well again, he hasn’t seen the front-line under standing start conditions for some time and the distance will suit him. He’s a very solid trotter and he always performs so I’m confident he can qualify.”
Our Overanova is expected to back-up in the Gr.1 $100,000 Seelite Windows & Doors Australian Trotting Grand Prix at Melton on February 6.
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