THE Easter period and its build up is a busy one for harness racing fans and the action starts to amplify from this afternoon.
Next Saturday evening’s Group 1 Riverina Championships for the four and five-year-old pacers of $100,000 will be the highlight, alongside the Wagga cup meeting.
Heats are set down for this afternoon with the likes of Group 1 winners ANNTONIA, SOHO ALMASI and SEND IT looking to stake their claim for more elite success.
With only two heats for each gender division, the first six home will progress to the final, which is drawn on national rating and therefore seeing the higher credentialled starters give away a start.
Off the back of today’s Wagga’s card, Gloucester Park will host a nine-race card including the Group 2 $50,000 Four and Five Year Old Championship, where Team Bond looks to have the strong hand.
DONT BOTHER ME NONE looks the one to beat from the two gate and brings back-to-back wins in readiness for his biggest test. Despite a wide gate, the favourite’s stablemate IDEAL AGENT has been a model of consistency when running first or second in nine of his 10 Australian starts.
Feature racing on Saturday evening will be split between Melton and Menangle with Group highlights on each card.
The Group 2 Alabar Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic finals will be hotly contested with heats conducted last week at Kilmore, and manners proving hard to come by for some.
In the colts and geldings’ division AMOLDO looks to be above average after his debut heat win when coming from three fence, whereas ALWAYS LOCKSLEY has further experience on his side and a nice trailing draw.
Manners are going to prove a key indicator in the fillies’ division, where three fillies with questionable behaviour but obvious talent look to have it between them. OUR LOLA MAE was unbeaten in two starts before she blotted her copybook in the heat, while LADY OF THE ARTS appears to be steadily putting things together and NONPARREIL beginning badly in her heat before producing a fantastic comeback win.
Saturday night’s Melton card will also see the return of MAAJIDA after a disappointing Sydney campaign eventuated in her being scratched out of the Queen Elizabeth 2nd Mile. On the cusp of ticking over $650,000 in prizemoney earnings, the star five-year-old mare has an exemplary Melton record, and despite the wide draw is the clear class factor.
The Blossom Lady will also be the starting point for Group One winners MOMENTSLIKETHESE and GOODTIME HEAVEN in their preparations, with both major players despite their fresh status.
EVA MATEO’s gate speed puts her right into the picture from her front row draw, and her last start second was luckless.
Menangle’s $30,000 feature for this weekend is for the three-year-old fillies where a small field of quality pacers will contest the Golden Easter Egg.
Despite the disappointing early scratching of last year’s juvenile filly of the year MADRID, the likes of the up-and-coming STENO, NOT TO BE DENIED and CAPTN ME all have a part to play in the sprint trip feature. Fairly luckless in the barrier draw stakes but taking her place in all of the big local features in her career so far, MISS EX can’t be forgotten from the much improved alley.
BEST of the weekend: Menangle, Saturday, R6 N2 Steno
VALUE of the weekend: Menangle, Saturday, R3 N5 Mighty George
Brittany Graham is a regular host on Sky Racing and the Sky Racing Active app, plus In The Gig with Ben Way and Gareth Hall every Tuesday night on Sky Racing 2 from 6pm.
The opinions expressed in The Forum are those of the author and may not be attributed to or represent policies of Harness Racing Victoria, which is the state authority and owner of thetrots.com.au.
