Will only get better

NZ HARNESS NEWS

Ashburton pacer Burlington will only get better after his emphatic debut win at Gore on Saturday.

The Brent White trained three-year-old ran to an impressive four-length victory on the Gore grass track for driver Stephen McNally.

White said he expects the horse to get better with more time to strengthen.

“Eventually he will fill out in to his big body.”

“He is a really nice horse.”

Burlington was given an extensive build-up with eight trials and workouts before his debut.

White said that was not completely by design.

“He had a wind operation, that was why he taken a while.”

“So, we tipped him out and brought him back and he has had two runs at the trials and workouts before today.”

Burlington was raced by stable client, Ross McCutcheon, and White’s partner, Alanna Henson, at the beginning of this week.

By the time Saturday’s race had come around, half of the shares in the pacer had been sold to a large group of White stable clients.

“We just sold half of him during the week- I had some owners who were looking for a horse.”

“Ross and Alanna owned him and they both sold 25%.”

Burlington could have been sold and been racing much earlier in his career, but bad luck intervened.

“He trailed up as a late two-year-old for another stable, but he trailed awful and it turned out he had a lung infection.”

That bad luck now looks to have turned in to good fortune for McCutcheon and Henson and Burlington’s new group of owners.

The American Ideal pacer looks to have plenty more wins in store judging by his effort on Saturday.

Burlington is from Last Port Of Call, the last foal from prolific producer, Port Medley.

The family feature prominently in breeder Tony Barron’s yearling draft at the upcoming national sales.

On course patrons were sure White had scored a race-to-race double when One Apollo and Jen Jaccka went nose-to-nose up the straight in Saturday’s feature trot.

Even Jen Jaccka’s owners, Charlie and Ailsa Smaill, thought their mare had got beaten until the judge’s call was announced.

Invercargill pacer Cast A Shadow caused an upset result when winning Saturday’s feature race, the Gore Grass Track Cup.

The pacer scored at $38-odds for breeder-owner-trainer Brian Nicol and driver Brent Barclay.

Cast A Shadow had battled to find form in five starts this season before his last-start fourth behind Mighty Flying Art at Wyndham.

Nicol said his pacer had taken time to get over a lung infection that he picked up after racing in the South Of The Waitaki Series at Addington over winter.

• NZ Harness News