He’s earned almost a half a million dollars on the track and has been a top three finisher at 70% of his race starts – Five Card Draw is a quality racehorse and is set to be the headliner at the Melbourne Cup Day Gympie trots on Tuesday.
Fernvale trainer Darrel Graham will take a truckload of horses to Gympie Racecourse and the stable’s 2015 Redcliffe Gold Cup runner-up Five Card Draw will head up the Gympie team.
A multiple Group 1 winner in New Zealand and Group 3 winner in Queensland with a career best mile rate of 1.54.1, Five Card Draw resumes from a let-up at Albion Park on Saturday night in a Q2-Q3 Pace and then will back up three days later to have his first try on the thoroughbred sand racetrack at Gympie.
In all Graham will have 11 horses racing on Cup day, he’ll start seven at Gympie and four at Redcliffe with the Peninsula starters in the care of his daughter Brittany.
It will be the first drive on the Gympie sand track for Darrel Graham who is known for his have sulky will travel philosophy.
“I love driving at these places and supporting the country meetings,” Graham said. “I’ve driven in every harness racing state in Australia, except South Australia and just about every track in every other state. “I always supported Queensland’s country tracks at Rocky, Townsville and Mackay, when they were open and I’m happy to be spending Cup day driving at Gympie and taking my good horses there. “Five Card Draw just had a little issue last time in and has come back good, we will also start another good horse on the team, Mafuta Vautin at this meeting.”
Mafuta Vautin raced by Graham’s wife Linda is a classy racehorse and was a Group 2 winner in the QBred 4yo Triad Final and a Listed Race winner in the QBred Breeders Classic 4yo Final last season. The Rollon Bigred five-year-old pacer has an impeccable record winning 12 of his 18 race starts. Mafuta Vautin hasn’t raced since June.
All four races at Gympie are over the 1950 metre course from a mobile start.
Graham’s 11 Cup day starters are:
Gympie – Race 1: Millar Montana (4); Lord Baltimore (5) | Race 2: Red Luck (6) | Race 3: Rubys Bad Boy (4); Mafuta Vautin (5) | Race 4: Five Card Draw (4); Rummiking (5)
Redcliffe – Race 2: Sista To Mafuta (6) | Race 3: Another Broiadway (5) | Race 4: Lord Jones (1) | Race 5 Montana Falcon (6)
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