H a r n e s s R a ci n g M a g a z i n e 25 May 2012
M O B I L E RO L L I N G Calder could be world class Bendigo blitz record romp Two-year-old trotter Blitzthemcalder could be world class according to international driver Luke McCarthy who has partnered the rising star at three of his victories. Trainer Ross Payne was beaming after his juvenile trotting star shaved 2.5 seconds off the 2yo Trot track record at Bendigo, 24 May, winning the first heat of the Tatlow Stakes with ease. The 35.8 metre romp was Blitzthemcalder’s sixth consecutive win and the second record in his short career. His winning time was 2:42.4 (2:01.6 MR). Two runs back he also set an Australasian record at Menangle with a 1:59.6 mile. At Bendigo, Blitzthemcalder was driven Leigh Sutton who has now also won three races on the ‘black flash’. The $1.10 favourite for the heat, Blitzthemcalder worked his way to the front early then jogged through the early sectionals before being revved up at the half mile. When extended for the last quarter, Blitzthemcalder trotted home in 28.5s. “He is the best I have driven, he has got gears,” Sutton said. Payne said that Luke McCarthy has already compared this horse to Muscle Hill (the trotter he steered to win the World Trotting Derby at at the Illinois State Fair in DuQuoin in 2009). “He reckons you won’t see the best of this horse until you can get one to go with him and test him,” Payne said. Perfectly balanced Blitzthemcalder does his work so easily. “You could balance a cup of coffee on his back,” Payne said. A son of pacing sire Metropolitan from the trotting line that produced Maoris Idol, Blitzthemcalder, bred and raced by Calder Park’s Rick Burchell, will start a short priced favourite for the 2yo Tatlow Trot Final, a Group 2 race with as $30,000 stake at Tabcorp Park next Friday night. The second of the Tatlow heats for 2yo trotters was won by the Maiden Gully trained Bellmac Cody. Trained by David Van Ryn and driven by Haydon Gray, Bellmac Cody, a gelding by Barcardi Lindy won his race by 8.4 metres. His time was 2:44.6 (2:03.2) which was also faster than Gluteus Maximus’ 2007 former record mark.— David Aldred
2011 Elitloppet champion Brioni
Maryborough Trotting’s big day
Bendigo Trotting Cup and Maryborough’s exciting Redwood Day is just around the corner - READ MORE INSIDE
Har n ess R a cin g M ag a zin e
M a y 2 4 t h , 2 0 12
M O B I L E RO L L I N G In this issue Redwood Day
2
Bendigo Trotters Cup
2
Elitloppet 2012
3
HRITC Success
4
Addy’s Back
4
Redwood Day is rolling around again Sunday July 15 is fast approaching and that means that it is once again Redwood day in the state’s north-west. John Justice holds the trophy aloft
Maryborough will host what has become the flagship carnival for Trotting in country Victoria. The meeting will feature the $75,000 Group 1 Seelite Windows & Doors Victoria Trotters Derby Final and the $50,000 Group 1 Seelite Windows & Doors Redwood Classic on the Sunday. This is the only opportunity squaregaiting fans have to experience Group 1 racing in a relaxed country environment. Given the strong interest in the day the Metropolitan and Country Harness Racing Association has decided to put together a package for those in the Melbourne and Melton regions. You will get a return coach trip, entry to the racetrack, race book, lunch and afternoon tea plus all the fun and excitement of the Redwood, for the cost of $65.00 per person. There will also be a punters club on track and a raffle on the bus for those who wish to join in. The coach will leave Moonee Valley at 8.45 sharp and Tabcorp Park Melton at 9.15 am sharp, returning after the last race. Bookings are essential and must be made by June 30, to book call Len Baker on 0401 679 745 or John Muller on 03 9743 5507.— HRV Media
www.bhrc.com.au 03 54493205
GIRLS ONLY SYNDICATE Girls, - Race a 2yo filly by Major In Art for just
$1 per day Go to our website for photos and full details on how you can join and have fun racing. this filly.
www.girlsgoracing.org
Bendigo Bank Trotting Cup should be super night
Bendigo Harness Racing Club will host a super night of trotting on Saturday 9 June with the feature race the annual $15,000 Bendigo Trotter’s Cup. The Bendigo Bank have come on board to sponsor the Trotting Cup for the first time. The Trotters Cup is for TM0 or better class horses and is a standing start Discretionary Handicap over the marathon 2650 metres. Also on this program is the $7,000 Alabar 3yo Guineas and the $7,000 Bendigo Bank Trotters Classic for 3yo’s. The 3yo Fillies race feature on the program is the inaugural Les Pratt Memorial Fillies Classic carrying a purse of $10,000. The Club has organised a host of activities for the night including sweepstake draw on the Trotters Cup.
Art Colony dies Loddon Valley Stud’s John Campbell has sadly confirmed the passing of dual hemisphere stallion Art Colony which has stood at his stud for the past two seasons at Lockwood in Central Victoria. The winner of $863,750 and a brilliant 1:51 mile rate performer at two years, Art Colony died at Winbak Farm Stud in Ontario, Canada in early May.
Pa g e 3
M a y 2 4 th, 2 0 1 2
World’s best trotters go for Sweden’s top prize
2011 winner Brioni is $9 with TAB Sportsbet to take out the Elitloppet heat but joins Iceland on the $14 line to be a dual winner.
The 2012 Elitloppet is raced this weekend and this year the race is going to be as competitive as ever with 16 horses from six different nations all staking their claim in one of the world’s premier trotting events. The unique mile race worth over $990,000AUD consists of two heats, each with eight runners followed by a final run on the same day which is compiled from the first four across the line in each heat. The race will be conducted for the 61st time. The format has been tinkered with over time with match races taking place for the heat winners, distance increases from 1,580 metres to as high as 3,200 metres in 1959 and walk up starts called “volts” common practice until 1962 when a mobile start was adopted. This year the race will be run over its now consistent 1,609 metres from a mobile start. Elitloppshelgen, or the Elitloppet weekend as it is known in Sweden, will see the Solvalla racetrack host three meetings across three days which will culminate in the Elitloppet Final run early Monday morning Australian time. Punters are already into full gear with TAB Sportsbet supporting the meeting by offering fixed odds on both heats and the final almost a week out from the event.
The first race of the night will kick off at 6.20pm (AEST) on Sunday with a marathon ensuing from there. Heat number one of the Elitloppet will go at 10.57pm (AEST) while the second heat is scheduled for 11.25pm (AEST). Punters will then have the chance to bet on revised fixed odds with TAB Sportsbet for final which will be run at 1.45am (AEST) Monday morning. The race has been rarely attended by Australasian standardbreds however New Zealanders Pride Of Petite (1996), Special Force (1999) and Lyell Creek (2001) paved the way for Australian representation in 2008. Chris Lang took his champion trotter Sundons Gift over to Sweden for a creditable sixth in the heat without advancing to the final. Lang will be back at the Solvalla track this year to provide live commentary for Sky Racing on what is shaping up to be a massive night of harness racing. All of the action will be live on Sky Racing 1 from 9.40pm (AEST) with harness experts Adam Hamilton and Gareth Hall taking punters through an elite night of squaregaiting. All of those who are social media savvy will have a chance to have their say by joining the Elitloppet conversation, simply add #Elitloppet to your tweets or tweet to the hosts @AdamTABSports and @ghall27. - Blake Redden
Elitloppet heat snap shot—the form runners The Elitloppet favourite for the first heat is the local squaregaiter Commander Crowe who is at the prohibitive odds of $1.75 with TAB Sportsbet. Given the polemarker easily accounted for his closest rival in the market last time out he should prove hard to beat here. American contender Arch Madness who is the second favourite at $5 will give USA legend Brian Spears his first drive in the race. French stalwart Oyannax is
currently at $15 in the heat after running home strongly for second from the awkward draw in the Group 2 Prix des Ducs de Normandie. They will be joined by the 2010 Elitloppet final winner Iceland who is $7.50 to take out the heat and $14 to be only the ninth horse to win the race twice. Heat two is likely to be dominated by the second of the French raiders, Rapide Lebel who has drawn mobile position six. Even with the awkward draw he has come up a
$1.90 favourite with TAB Sportsbet fixed odds. German invader, Brioni squeezed into last year’s final by finishing fourth in the heat, he then atoned by coming from near the back of the field with a withering burst to win in one of the closest finishes ever recorded in the race. He is back in form following a win at Galve just over a week ago and is $9 with TAB Sportsbet to take out the heat but joins Iceland on the $14 line to be a dual winner.
M OB I L E R O LL I N G
Pa g e 4
Training school getting success on and on the track at Bendigo Six-year-old mare Auzzie Rose continued the success for Bendigo’s Harness Racing Industry Training Centre with her first win in over a year, this month at Echuca. The H.R.I.T.C. Board of Management race the Conch Deville mare which was bred by the Board chairman, Steve Warren. Trained by Roma Pocock and driven by champion Bendigo reinsman Darryl Douglas, Auzzie Rose, came from a 10 metre handicap in the 2530 metre Choice Hotels T0 Trotters Handicap and got home by a half neck over 60 metre backmarker Cameos Moment with Abbotshall (30m) close up in third place. “Daryl (Douglas) just let her bowl along in front and in her right class she was able to go her own speed, and she hung on,” Pocock said. Auzzie Rose’s front running victory follows hot on the heels of stable mate Village Patrol’s win earlier this month at Cobram. Pocock said the harness racing trainees attending the Bendigo H.R.I.T.C get very excited when the horses race and do well in their races. “Only a couple of the students were there last night because some on them had the flu and couldn’t make it but the ones there were jumping up and down and got very excited,” she said. The students put a lot of work into the training centre team of trotters and pacers, working and caring for the horses under the watchful eye of trainer Pocock, day in and day out. Pocock said that the students including current reinsman Clinton McSwain are learning everything there is to learn about harness racing, Pocock said. “Driving, training and feeding the horse, the horse care skills, they learn everything. When the horses win it just makes it that little bit easier for them all to front up for ‘work’ early each day. They are all keen to learn we have a very enthusiastic class this year with some real talent there as well,” Pocock said. David Aldred
“They are all keen to learn we have a very enthusiastic class this year with some real talent there as well,” trainer Roma Pocock Lauren Daffy with Auzzie Rose
Addy’s back Addy aka Spirit Of Bendigo is back in training at Paul and Maree Campbell’s Maiden Gully property after having more than six weeks rest to recover from an inflamed splint bone in her leg. She has returned to the cart and started jogging as she prepares on her road back to the trials and her long awaited race debut. The Campbell’s are happy with Addy’s progress. “She has done a lot of swimming in recent weeks but her legs have been given complete rest from the trackwork,” Paul Campbell said. ”we will bandaged her legs and box her of an evening just to make sure . The bandages will give her extra support for the concussion work of jogging..” Addy will also continue her swimming routine to build her fitness.
Addy aka Spirit Of Bendigo at the trials