By Matt Markham
West Melton trainer, Ken Barron, has high hopes for the chances of two three-year-olds tonight at Addington Raceway.
Barron, who is enjoying another good season in the training ranks with 22 wins on the board from 119 starters will take Chittybangbang and Swamp Major into harness headquarters with both strong chances in their respective races.
A Gotta Go Cullen gelding out of Julia R, Chittybangbang is a half-brother to the former Northern Hemisphere race winner, Chattanoogachoochoo. Unsighted since he finished eighth of nine at Auckland back in June of last year the NZ Bred Limited owned pacer has been strong in his trials and workouts.
“He’s pretty forward for this week,” Barron said.
“I don’t think it’s an overly strong field so I’m expecting him to go pretty close. He’s going to make a nice horse one day.”
Stable driver, Blair Orange will have plenty of time to let Chittybangbang settle from their second line draw before he unleashes the hot favourite.
Swamp Major’s formline is a little more convincing than that of his stablemate.
The Art Major three-year-old has been victorious in both of his starts so far this season – winning fresh up at Invercargill before repeating the dose at Winton a fortnight ago.
The half-brother to recently sold Barron performer, McArdle Star, raced in Southland to qualify himself for the Southern Supremacy Final later in the season.
Good enough to run second to the brilliant Lazarus in his only two starts as a two-year-old, Swamp Major has all the makings of a very nice three-year-old by the end of the season.
“He’s going to end up being a very nice horse in time,’’ Barron said.
“This season he’s come back a stronger horse but should just keep getting better.”
Drawn the outside of the front line over 1950 metres is never ideal in any circumstance, and the task is made that much harder by some strong opposition to his inside.
Dreamy Damien should prove the toughest of his rivals based on some of his performances this season, although Nolan Sackett from the Roger Winter stable has made an impressive start to his career and was desperately unlucky in the junior drivers event last week behind Scotlyn Justis.
With only the eight runners in the event, Blair Orange, who drives Swamp Major, at least won’t have to worry about settling too far off the speed if he elects to go back from the draw.
Orange is leading the pack behind the high-flying Dunn brothers Dexter and John on the drivers’ premiership with 58 wins.
John is 9 wins clear of him on 68 while Dexter is free-wheeling out in front with 128 wins next to his name.
Orange has some strong chances tonight alongside the Barron duo including the Paul Nairn trained two-year-old Habibi Inta who is on debut.
The full-brother to Habibti, Habibti Ivy and Lothario has looked above average in his trials and workouts and being trained by Nairn will mean he is more than ready for his debut assignment.
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