Sir Eros, a lightly raced trotter and a convincing winner at the Geelong midweek meeting, is regarded as classics material of the highest order.
The big gelding has won two of his three starts, with an early mishap ruining his chances at his other appearance at Maryborough.
At Geelong, Sir Eros settled down last before looping the field in the middle stages and then making short work of his rivals without driver Anthony Butt turning his whip.
“We’ve always had a big opinion of him. He’s run home in 58 at the end of 2400 metres regularly in his work,” Ararat trainer Danny O’Brien said.
“He’s got a lot of bottom to him. He’s just a lovely individual.”
O’Brien bought him on behalf of a syndicate at the Australasian Premier Trotting Sale in 2020 for a modest $7500.
“He was one of the last lots at the sale and was going too cheaply, so we stepped up to buy him.”
Sir Eros suffered bone chips in a hock as a two-year-old and was sidelined for six months.
O’Brien, who brought out the ‘black type’ trotters Crown Dream, Molly’s Purse, Windinyasoup and Suave Taj, is aiming Sir Eros at the Aldebaran Park Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic with a $50,000 final at Melton on March 19.
“If all goes well, we’ll be looking at the derbies and other classics later in the season,” O’Brien said.
Bred by the late Martin Hartnett, Sir Eros is one of the first crop of the Andover Hall horse Creatine, a winner in town hall company in North America, Sweden and Finland.
He is out of the successful Sundon mare Shining Sun, dam of the 2014 Victoria Trotters Derby winner Illawong Helios and the Group 1 winner Illawong Shimmer.
Hes A Hammer, a winner at Bendigo, and Melpark Magic, who completed back-to-back wins at Albion Park, were other APTS sale graduates to win this week.
