By Duane Ranger
He still has to win another $6,135 to qualify for the $150,000 Emerald Harness Jewels Final, but Barry Purdon is not giving up on Kimani taking his place alongside the best 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings at Cambridge Raceway on June 4.
Kimani kept his Jewels hopes alive with a gutsy neck victory in last night’s (Thursday) $6,000 Mega Cambridge Mobile for the C1 and C2 pacers. He was a hot $1.30 favourite.
The Bettor’s Delight – Lizzie Maguire colt only has two more meetings in Auckland to qualify for the Final, but that doesn’t perturb Hall-Of-Famer, Purdon.
“If he makes it he makes it. We will certainly be trying and will hopefully get enough dollars when he starts at Alexandra Park.
“He’s good enough to make the Final, but he only returned from a spell in March. We had a lot of ground to make up and he has done well. He showed last night that he wouldn’t be out of his class if he did make it. He’s a nice racehorse,” Purdon said.
Zac Butcher had Kimani four-wide going around the first turn and then worked him hard to get to the lead down the back straight on a 42.5 lead time.
They then dictated all the pace holding on to win the 2200m mobile in 2:46.5 (mile rate 2:01.8) with final 800m and 400m sprints of 61.9 and 30.3.
“He’s a nice horse but the penny still hasn’t dropped. He has a lot of ability and I think he will make a really nice 4-year-old. The weather was shocking last night and it looked like he was tired at the end of his race, but he was actually switching off.
“He’s got a bad tendency to do that. He loses concentration pretty easy. Like a lot of 3-year-olds he just needs more time and racing,” Clevedon-based Purdon said.
It was Kimani’s second win from 12 starts this season. He had two races as a 2-year-old and finished third and fourth at Alexandra Park.
“Spelling him probably cost him a Jewels start but the owners (Rosslands Stud) wanted what was best for him after he returned from Christchurch,” Purdon said.
Kimani took on Lazarus, Chase The Dream and company in the Group One Sires Stakes Final on (NZ) Cup Day. He finished 10th of 13 – 10 lengths behind the winner, Lazarus.
“If he doesn’t make the Jewels Final we will just keep racing him regularly, carrying on into the new season. He’s the best 3-year-old in the stable and we all have quite a bit of time for him,” Purdon said.
Meanwhile the Todd Macfarlane trained and driven A Chance To Dream recorded the quickest 2200m mobile sprint of the night stopping the clock in 2:45.7. That equated to a 2:01.2 mile rate and it was the 4-year-old Art Major mare’s second win in 10 starts this season – and third overall.
There were seven 2200m mobile events on the eight race-programme.
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