27 November 2017 | Trots Media
Lennytheshark broke the clock, Soho Tribeca can match the best, Tiger Tara’s in the mix and don’t write off Lazarus.
They were just some of the verdicts of Jason Bonnington and Blake Redden from the first night of Inter Dominion heats at Perth’s Gloucester Park, when the pair sat down for their latest ID17 podcast.
Bonnington said the plan rolled out perfectly for Soho Tribeca’s trainer-driver Kim Prentice when he upstaged the series favourite Lazarus in heat one.
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“In terms of it being an explicit illustration of these two horses and their ability against one another, we didn’t get that, but what we did get is confirmation that the times we’ve seen Soho Tribeca running fortnight in fortnight out at Gloucester Park … will stack up,” Bonnington said.
“If (Soho Tribeca leads and) gets a breather at any stage, they won’t be able to run him down in the final, I don’t think.”
Redden said Soho Tribeca’s performance reaffirmed the local pacer’s standing.
“He’s proven time in time out in Perth that he’s a very tough, strong horse and he can go to war, he can run a brutal race,” Redden said. “The way he won on the weekend he did gain something, he did prove that with things working out in the barrier draws in the final, he is going to be a serious contender.”
But the Harness Racing Victoria form analysts remained resolute about the hopes of their own hometown hero, Lennytheshark, who held off Tiger Tara by 3.2m in the quickest of the night’s heats.
“He is the horse to beat in the series as far as I’m concerned,” Bonnington said. “Lenny still won pretty easily, he looked like Lenny of old, he drifted off a little bit but not much down the lane, it was a good win.”
Redden agreed. “The effort was very good. It’s all systems go. It’s probably exciting that he’s right at the peak of his powers, I think we are all certain that Soho Tribeca is right at the peak of his powers, Tiger Tara is starting to get to that level. So they are all peaking at the same time.”
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