Merrigum trainer Brett Bunfield will be looking for his biggest success in the sport on Saturday night when stable star Zermanion lines up in the Group 3 Gordon Rothacker Memorial Championship Final over 1720m.
An easy and commanding winner of his heat last week, when breaking his metropolitan duck, Zermanion has to be considered among the leading chances in the night’s $30,000 feature, especially after the cards fell his way at the barrier draw, which will see him start from gate three.
“We’re hopeful rather than confident, it gets a little bit tougher again, but if he goes like he did last week he is certainly going to be a chance again that’s for sure,” Bunfield said.
Zermanion was bred and is raced by Shaun and Karen Boyd, who co-own him along with Peter Irwin, Sean Ryan and Stephen Tsirgianis, and it’s fair to say the stakes are high for Bunfield.
“Shaun is my boss at work, him and Karen and another one of the owners still works with us.”
Last Friday night delivered Bunfield’s third metropolitan win as a trainer, having won twice in 1999 with Gasnier at the famed Harold Park.
“Gasnier was a lovely horse. One of our other horses, Yerrington Bob, is a lot like him. If he was in the right spot he’d win or earn money, but he was no superstar by any stretch.”
This most recent success has rewarded Bunfield decision to move from Canberra to Merrigum.
“I’d always sort of wanted to come this way,” he said, a decision fast-tracked when a key backer passed away. “We didn’t give the horses away, but we knew we couldn’t do it full-time and had to go and get (other) jobs.”
Yerrington Bob will step out in the DNR Logistics Pace on Saturday night hoping to break his M0, but has unfortunately drawn outside the front line.
“He’s going to struggle from that draw,”Bunfield said. “If you go back through his form, if he’s in the first four in the running he usually wins or earns good money, but if he’s any further back he doesn’t tend to be very good when out wide.”
The DNR Logistics Pace will run at 6.02pm and the Gordon Rothacker Memorial Championship Final will follow at 9.05pm on a big 10-race card at Tabcorp Park Melton.
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