NZ HARNESS NEWS
Canterbury filly Major Sass can firm up her spot in the Nevele R Fillies Final in one of the final heats at Forbury Park on Thursday night.
The Paul Court-trained pacer will face just five rivals in a 1700-metre dash around the Dunedin track.
Major Sass’ only failure in her five-start career came when she peaked after launching a big three-wide run in a previous heat at Ashburton.
Court thought his filly gets the perfect opportunity to put that run behind her on Thursday night.
“Especially with Wainui Creek out, it is probably a very winnable race for her.
“She is a pretty nice filly, I think a little bit of her.
“With the way she is working around home, she should be pretty hard to roll.”
Major Sass’ main rival, Anamajor, beat her home by a small margin in when they met in the Ashburton heat.
The Robert Dunn-trained filly battled in to fifth placing in her subsequent start against older horses at Addington.
Major Sass was narrowly defeated by Chitura at Addington, before easily winning at Wyndham in her two subsequent starts.
Anamajor and Major Sass have drawn to dominate Thursday night’s heat from barriers 1 and 2.
Fellow Canterbury filly, Pressed For Time, must overcome drawing the outside of the front line to beat the two favourites.
Like Major Sass, the Tom Bagrie-trained filly brings Southland form to the race.
She won over one mile (1609m) at Winton before running second in her last start at Forbury Park.
Juvenile pacer Maharaj adds to the massive hand Canterbury pacers have in Thursday night’s meeting.
The Mark Jones-trained two-year-old will have his first start against older maiden pacers over 2200m.
Jones said he expected the Bettor’s Delight colt to handle having his first start away from home and under lights well.
“He is a typical Bettor’s Delight, he is quite laid back and a bit lazy.
“I would be surprised if he did anything wrong.
“He goes alright, he is still a learner.”
Taking on race-hardened older horses was about the only option Jones had when trying to find a race for Maharaj to start his career in.
“It has been hard to find races for him, the two-year-old race did not get off the ground at Invercargill, so this is about our only option.”
Maharaj brings strong trial form to his debut.
Though the pacer finished well out of the placings in his last trial at Ashburton, he still ran good time.
Maharaj was never going to be a factor in the finish when getting back in the field on a sizzling 26.3sec final 400m.
In his previous trial, he beat three-year-old pacers when running to a half-length qualifying victory.
- NZ Harness News
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
