Lazarus crushes Interdom field
The only thing more startling than Kiwi pacer Lazarus’s demolition job in Friday night’s $A1.1million Inter Dominion Final was trainer Mark Purdon reaction to it.
The Canterbury pair crushed Australia’s best harness horses with one of the greatest ever displays by a New Zealand pacer across the Tasman.
After settling midfield Lazarus was forced to work harder than his key rivals sitting parked for the last two laps in a move that could have had the punters who backed him into odd-ons favouritism feeling nervous.
But those nerves were calmed when Purdon had a stranglehold on his champ starting the last 600m and actually chose to hold Lazarus back to his rivals to not let them gain clear air.
At the top of the straight Purdon finally gave the magnificent five-yearold stallion his head and the result was electrifying as he bolted clear to beat two former NZ pacers in Chicago Bull and Tiger Tara.
The ease of the win was stunning but Purdon was almost pragmatic about it.
“I wasn’t surprised. Not at all,” he dead panned.
“I knew I had them beaten a long way from home and Tiger Tara in front was actually quite fired up so I had couple of little looks at him to keep him keen.
“I knew I had him beaten down the back straight but I held Laz back to them so horses like Chicago Bull couldn’t get out till late but it wouldn’t have mattered.
“He was right in the zone tonight and he was bolting. He is just a champion.”
The victory was Lazarus’s 33rd from 40 starts and over $3.2million and only Monkey King has won mire money than him among New Zealand harness horses and that was from 95 starts.
He will remain in West Australia to contest the Fremantle and West Australia Cups next month before the Hunter Cup in Melbourne and the Miracle Mile in Sydney in February.
Later in the night Purdon and training partner Natalie Rasmussen also won the A$200,000 Golden Nugget with Ultimate Machete.