Herb looking to deliver Angoves another glorious Group 1

James Herbertson has already proven to the Angoves that he’s got the Group 1 touch and gets the opportunity to provide the family more elite level success this Saturday night at Tabcorp Park Melton.

Herbertson drove Ebonys Avenger – a youngster trained by Chris Angove and bred and owned by his son Brad – to win the Vicbred Super Series 2YO Trotting Fillies Final on December 31.

Since then, he’s been trusted to partner the Angoves’ star Sundons Courage in his past two assignments, the Group 1 TAB V L Dullard Trotters Cup and Great Southern Star heat.

He finished well for fourth behind Majestuoso in the Dullard, but had excuses when well beaten in his qualifier last Friday night.

“Just before the first turn there was just a little bit of tightening from out wide and it just put me down onto Mattie Craven’s (Lotamuscle’s) toes a little bit early and popped my tyre,” Herbertson told Trots Talk.

“He raced pretty much the whole race with a flat tyre and it wrapped around the wheel.

“It was like having a handbrake on. That was his excuse for not performing up to expectation and his usual standard of racing.”

Sundons Courage, a 23-time winner from 126 career starts, shoots for Group 1 glory this Saturday night in the Aldebaran Park The Knight Pistol where he will start from gate two.

Herbertson is hoping he can find the pegs, and if successful, expects the nine-year-old to give the $50,000 event a good shake.

“Hatchback (barrier one) ran a good race last week, but he is up in class quite significantly in this race,” Herbertson said.

“We will probably do our best to get to the pegs. In this class of race around Melton, you probably want to be on the pegs, so if we can slip across, have a helmet behind the likes of Always Ready then that would be perfect really.

“From there, I’m sure he’d go pretty close.

“First thing’s first, I’ll probably just try and get across and then pick which one we hand up to.

“I’ve only driven him a couple of times so I’m still working him out a little bit – how far to push him and that – but he’s a quality horse and he’s so consistent.

“I’m sure he’ll be thereabouts.”

The Knight Pistol is the second last leg of the Aurora Australis, which culminates with the TAB Australian Trotting Grand Prix on February 26.

A $50,000 bonus will be won by connections of the trotter which accumulates the most points (1st: 8, 2nd: 5, 3rd: 3, 4th: 2, 5th: 1) throughout the eight-race series.

Anton Golino-trained Im Ready Jet currently tops the leaderboard with 24 points, but will be overtaken by Andy Gath’s Majestuoso if he can win The Knight Pistol.

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