By Duane Ranger
Steve Telfer likes what he sees in the progeny of Sportswriter and believes the champion Canadian sire’s first New Zealand winner could develop into the best 2-year-old that he and Chris Garlick has trained.
“I just like the way they go about their work. I’ve got a couple of 2-year-olds and a few other young ones. They seem to have good manners and they want to do a job.
“They give me the impression that they will just get better and better with time. That’s certainly the case with The Lone Ranger,” Clevedon-based Telfer said.
The Lone Ranger, who became Sportswriter’s first New Zealand winner at Cambridge Raceway on debut on January 28 lines up on the same track tonight (Thursday).
The promising juvenile will start one of the favourites in the first heat of the Garrard’s Sires Stakes Series for the 2-year-old pacing colts and geldings.
It’s a 1700m mobile and is 500m shorter than when The Lone Ranger and a confident Scott Phelan sat parked and paced 2:43.5 for the 2200m mobile on debut. That was a $6,000 race. Tonight they compete for $22,000.
“He’s drawn nicely at four and has recovered from a virus which cost him a start in the Young Guns Final.
“He’s improving all the time and certainly one of the nicer young pacers we have trained. He should go well on Friday. There are some nice young horses in the field but he trialled real well on Saturday (second of four), so I am looking forward to the race,” Telfer said.
The Lone Ranger will be having his first start since finishing second behind race rival Mongolian Hero at Alexandra Park on February 12.
Mongolian Hero got the passing lane run that night after The Lone Ranger again sat parked. He went down by half a length.
“Mongolian Hero will be tough to beat again and so will Ray’s (Green) runners (Vasari and Alta Intrigue).
“We will know exactly where our fella is at after Thursday’s race and then we will make our future racing decisions with him. Don’t worry Duane he isn’t going anywhere. The owners have already turned down some big money for him.
“If he goes real well at Cambridge then maybe the Welcome Stakes at Addington in a couple of weeks could be the plan, but long-term the goal is the Jewels and Breeder’s Crown Finals.
“Initially we would like to think we would run one or two on Thursday and make the Final in late May,” Telfer said.
The Paul Court trained and Zac Butcher driven Mongolian Hero looks the toughest for The Lone Ranger to beat.
The talented son of Mach Three is having his first look at Cambridge, but his only win came over the distance.
He was also a nice third behind More The Better and Pacing Major in the Group One Cardigan Bay Stakes at Alexandra Park on March 11.
That raced produced a New Zealand record time of 2:00 minutes even for the 1700m mobile. However Mongolian Hero was more than seven lengths from the winner.
Tonight’s juvenile pace is the first of three heats with the other two scheduled for Addington Raceway on March 26 and then April 29. There are also three Sires Stakes qualifying races.
The Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen trained Pacing Major (Dexter Dunn) qualified for the Group One $170,000 Final at Addington Raceway on May 21 by winning the $25,000 Kindergarten Stakes at Wyndham on February 20, and then on March 4 the same trainers won the Breckon Bloodstock Cardigan Bay Young Guns Pace with More The Better (Purdon).
The third qualifier will be raced at Addington Raceway on April 8.
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