By Michael Guerin
Pacing’s wonder horse is set for a busy start to the New Year.
Newly-crowned Inter Dominion hero Lazarus will race six times in three Australian states in 36 days to kick off 2018.
The champion five-year-old is set to return to the track at Gloucester Park in Perth on January 5 and the following two Fridays there before traveling to Victoria for the A$500,000 Hunter Cup at Melton on February 3. And trainer Mark Purdon will be back on the sulky for all four races.
Lazarus has been having an easy time in West Australia since his argument-ending Interdom win on December 8 in which he sat parked to thrash Australia’s best pacers.
In the very next race that night Purdon had his reinsman’s licence suspended for 26 days for pushing out driving stablemate Ultimate Machete and still hasn’t heard about when his appeal against that sentence will be heard.
“I was hoping we would have heard an appeal date by now but I won’t be going back to Perth for that hearing, we have a QC over there to handle that,” said Purdon.
The suspension leaves Purdon’s chance of driving Auckland Cup favourite Vincent up in the air but regardless of how the appeal goes Lazarus will miss a race in Perth that was being mooted for him on December 29.
“If he races next on January 5 then I can drive him no matter what happens in the appeal so that will be his next race,” says Purdon. “I will go over and drive him in that, then stay there and train him myself for the Freemantle Cup (Jan 12) and the WA Cup (Jan 19).”
Stablemate Have Faith In Me is also likely to contest the latter two group ones as he races on through the summer before heading to North America under new ownership.
Racing three Fridays in a row and then flying across Australia before contesting the Hunter Cup may sound taxing but Lazarus looked at the peak of his powers in the Interdom, his fourth race in 14 days on the back of a long trip from Christchurch to Perth.
After the Hunter Cup he is being aimed at the Miracle Mile on Febraury 24, for which he will have to contest a qualifier a week earlier, so is almost certain to race six times in just over five weeks.
But then his season could be over unless Purdon considered adding a $50,000 free-for-all at Alexandra Park two weeks after the Miracle Mile on the way home or an Addington sign off to the season in the Easter Cup on March 31.
Meanwhile, Vincent (barrier 5) is going to have to come from outside key rival Star Galleria (barrier 4) in the $50,000 Four and Five-Year-Old Futurity at Cambridge on Sunday as the pair dominate the mobile 2700m feature.
And Speeding Spur will start a red hot favourite for the Flying Mile for the trotters after drawing barrier two, especially with Temporale and Lemond bypassing the race.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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