Lazarus gets good draw

Any hopes Lazarus’ opposition had of the runaway favourite being handed a dud draw have been dashed.

Lazarus, a $1.30 favourite for the $800,000 Group I New Zealand Trotting Cup, will start from barrier six behind the tapes on for Tuesday.

The draw is almost perfect for his driver and co-trainer Mark Purdon to work to the front of the pack and grind his opponents into the ground.

Lazarus, a 10-length winner of the race last year, was unlikely to be challenged for the lead by any of the five horses drawn inside him.

Lazarus’ stablemate Dream About Me is the biggest loser from the draw. She will start from the inside of the second line behind $71 shot No Doctor Needed.

Purdon and co-trainer Natalie Rasmussen have four horses in the field with Heaven Rocks and Have Faith In Me both starting from the unruly barrier position, alongside Robbie Burns.

All 14 runners who remained in contention for a start accepted.

● Meanwhile when Alabar Stud’s General Manager, Graeme Henley, sat down with his inner circle and drafted up the plans for a racing syndicate to promote their newest sire, he could not have envisaged just well it may pan out.

Less than two years later, the Alabar Racing Syndicate owns the pre-post second favourite, Chase Auckland, for the biggest threeyear-old race in the first half of the season.

And when they score up for the

$170,000 Group 1 feature at Addington on Tuesday, a syndicate that includes 35 separate share-holders will be united in having butterflied stomachs. ‘‘There is a real mixture of people in the syndicate,’’ said Henley. ‘‘Quite a few new ones, some that have raced horses

before, and many from Australia as well as from throughout New Zealand.’’

Chase Auckland is from the first crop of Alabar sire Auckland Reactor, so any success by the exciting pacer will have a two-fold benefit for the stud.