Danny Zavitsanos is not lost on the romance of Team Zav’s representative in next Saturday night’s $2.1m TAB Eureka at Menangle.
Zavitsanos confirmed his promising three-year-old Fox Dan will line up in the royal blue and yellow colours of Team Zav in the world’s richest race after the son of Art Major scored an effortless win at Melton on Saturday night.
“Fox Dan will race in the Team Zav slot and we’ve finally got one of our own horses to represent us,” Zavitsanos said.
Fox Dan is out of the race mare Jodila, which was Zavitsanos’ first venture into harness racing 14 years ago.
“She was the first horse I bought and this is a huge thrill considering I bred Fox Dan as well, it’s like a fairy tale,” he said.
While the margin was only six metres, Fox Dan appeared to have something in reserve as he cruised to the line in a mile rate of 1:55.8 for the 2240 metres.
“It was not about the margin and Ryan (Sanderson) didn’t knock him around and he should back up nicely next week,” he said.
“I think this horse is really untapped and he relaxes in his races and he has the ability to sit off them and run quick closing sectionals.”
Fox Dan is one of five three-year-olds in this year’s TAB Eureka, the third edition of the race.
The highly talented colt tuned up for next week’s feature when he led most of the way in the Hip Pocket Castlemaine Pace, completing a hat trick of wins at Melton.
Fox Dan engaged in an early tussle for the front running with the Kerryn Manning-trained and driven Surfingmakescents.
“Kez wanted to hold the early lead but we probably had the respect to keep pushing and he got there and he ran a great race after that,” Sanderson said.
“He is a little professional and you can press the button and he’ll settle pretty well and he felt good the whole way,” he said.
