MACH TIME: OWNER EYES TICKET TO GRAND FINAL
DANNY Zavitsanos dares to dream again with his pacer Mach Dan, who has two feet firmly planted on harness racing’s biggest stage, the Inter Dominion.
Mach Dan improved upon a first-round placing at Ballarat with an impressive win in his second heat at Shepparton and heads to Geelong on Saturday night to cement a place in next week’s grand final at Melton.
Last month, Mach Dan provided Zavitsanos with one of the highlights of his time in the sport when he took out the Geelong Pacing Cup.
The pacer’s flamboyant Geelong-based owner kept the faith after talking with Clayton Tonkin from the Emma Stewart stable earlier this week. “A lot of people wrote him off after the first round of heats but Clayton told me that he was a big chance to turn the tables on his rivals at Shepparton and he was right,” Zavitsanos said.
Zavitsanos believes there were excuses for Mach Dan’s defeat after leading at Ballarat in the series opener.
“Expensive Ego worked him during the race and the inside of the track was a bit of a slop after the rain,” Zavitsanos said.
A noted drifter in the betting at Shepparton, Mach Dan was used up early in an unsuccessful attempt to wrest the lead off I Cast No Shadow, however, subsequently ended up with the perfect trail after Expensive Ago worked around to sit parked for the final 1200m. Mach Dan made a line of four around the home turn before fighting on bravely in the home stretch to stave off all challenges.
Driver Mark Pitt admitted he had to quickly change tactics when he was unable to find the front.
“Plan A to lead didn’t work out but Plan B was hopefully to be one out one back following Expensive Ego and that’s how it turned out,” Pitt said.
“Once he came off Expensive Ego’s wheel he really knuckled down and hopefully he will be even better at Geelong on Saturday night.”
Zavitsanos heads up Team Zav and is the only Victorian-based slot holder in world’s richest harness race The Eureka, which will be run in September next year at Menangle.
“We are in it for the next three years,” he said.
“It’s exciting and gives us the opportunity to promote the sport not only in the Geelong region but throughout Victoria.”
Meanwhile, Zavitsanos has his eye on Inter Dominion glory.
“Mach Dan is no superstar but he is a consistent good horse who is sometimes underestimated and we think he will continue to improve throughout the series,” he said. “He has won more than $600,000 in prizemoney and everyone would like to have a horse like him.”