Master trainer Chris Lang is confident he can wind back the clock at Saturday night’s Breeders Crown finals night at Melton.
There was a time Lang, then the “King of Trotting”, made the Breeders Crown his own seven wins between 2002 and 2010 with superstars like Skyvalley, Let Me Thru and Kyvalley Road.
After some time out of the game, Lang and partner Sonia Mahar are back chasing another Crown win with the immensely exciting I Am Wilma in Saturday night’s $60,000 Group 1 final for three-year-old fillies.
Lang, who also trained the great Sundons Gift and National Interest to win a string of trotting majors, thinks I Am Wilma could be his next star.
“She could be good, very good,” he said. “You don’t see three-year-old fillies go any better and I mean ever, than her past couple of runs.
“She sat in the death (outside the leader) and ran her last mile in 1min55sec at Bendigo last start.
“It’s been a great six or eight weeks for her. Since Sonia and I changed her gear and the way we train her, she’s just keeps improving and getting stronger. We always knew she had above average ability, but the strength and power she’s showing now is exciting.”
Lang is excited by the challenge of facing one of Australasia’s best three-year-old trotting fillies, Gatesys Gem, in this Crown final.
“We’ve got lots of respect for her, she’s got the form on the board, we’re confident we can match her,” he said.
“Even though we’ve drawn inside her (I Am Wilma has gate four and Gatesy Gem gate five), we don’t have to lead to beat her.
“Those past couple of runs have given us and Chris (Alford, driver) the belief to drive her with confidence and aggression.”
Such is Lang’s huge opinion of I Am Wilma, he has not ruled out pushing to tackle Australia’s best open-age trotters in the $250,000 Great Southern Star on February 14.
“I haven’t discussed it as such with the owners, but it’s a conversation we’ll have after this week if she goes as well as I expect,” he said.
“Yes, this filly is just about to turn four, but in the old racing season she’d have been four in October and the Great Southern Star isn’t until February.”
Lang and Mahar are already looking to the Great Southern Star with their rejuvenated open-class star Ollivici, who posted the 20th win of his career at Melton last Saturday week.
“Sonia’s done a remarkable job with him, changing his feed and training to manage tying-up issues which have always plagued him,” Lang said.
“For everything he’s done, I think this is as good as we’ve ever had him.
“He’s built a good record for a horse who got injured as a yearling and they only gave a 20 percent of even making it to the races. That was six years ago.
“He’s run second in a couple of (Group 1) Bill Collins Sprints and Just Believe only just beat him in one of them.
“Had it not been for the tying-up issues, I think he could have achieved even more, but the way he’s going now, he’s still got time.”
