Young gun driver Ryan Sanderson hopes his “dream come true” can keep giving on Saturday night.
Sanderson, 22, is enjoying a breakthrough season in the sulky and drives two of the major chances – War Dan Buddy and Kiss – in the two $100,000 Vicbred finals at Melton.
Sanderson will smash his personal best for wins in a season, given he’s already on 116 (compared to his previous best of 108 in 2022) and has more than a month remaining.
He is fifth on this season’s Victorian statewide driving premiership and equal fifth on the metropolitan leaderboard with the great Chris Alford.
More importantly, the quality of wins and feature race opportunities has soared, too.
So much of that is due to the huge support of premier trainers Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin and leviathan owners, Danny and Jo Zavitsanos.
Just last month Sanderson broke through for his first Group 1 win when the Zavitsanos-owned Fox Dan outclassed his rivals in the Victoria Derby.
It came just weeks after Sanderson drove the same horse to finish a fantastic second in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka, at Menangle.
“It’s just been the most amazing season. It really has been a dream come true,” Sanderson said.
“I’ve got so much to thank Emma and Clayton for with the support they’ve given me and faith they’ve put in me.
“Hopefully I can reward them for it again this weekend.”
Both War Dan Buddy and Kiss are trained by Stewart and Tonkin, while War Dan Buddy is owned by the Zavitsanos’.
War Dan Buddy gets his chance to turn the tables on his star stablemate Miki To Success given their respective barrier draws in the 4YO entires and geldings final.
“It’s the draw we needed to have a real chance of beating him,” he said. “We’ve got options. I’ll have to chat with Emma and Clayton about tactics, but it could be taking a sit on him and trying to beat him for speed would be our best chance.
“I thought War Dan Buddy did a terrific job to sit outside him and still run second two starts back and then we won our semi-final really well last week, but obviously he was in the other semi.”
While barrier one looks ideal for War Dan Buddy, Sanderson said it was the one alley he didn’t want with Kiss in the Vicbred 4YO Mares’ final.
“For all of her strengths, and she’s got plenty of them, early speed isn’t one of them,” he said.
“I thought she could control the race from pretty much anywhere, but now we’re going to need luck.
“I’m sure she’s the best mare in it, but hopefully I can weave my way off.
“She deserves to win it. She was fantastic sitting outside and beating The Answer in her heat and then even better again in the semi last week.”
