Lazarus in a class of his own
SUPERSTAR pacer Lazarus confirmed his champion status with a brilliant win in yesterday’s New Zealand Trotting Cup at Addington.
A bumper crowd erupted as the 5yrold charged away from his opponents to win the $800,000 feature by more than five lengths in the hands of driver Mark Purdon, who cotrains the horse with Natalie Rasmussen.
After his horse’s second consecutive win in the 3200m race, Purdon could only find one word to describe his superstar.
‘‘He is a champion. I think that is the only way to describe him.’’
Lazarus made a brilliant beginning to the race, which Purdon felt was the key to the horse’s chances.
‘‘We had been giving him some practice and today I asked him to go out quicker and he duly obliged,’’ he said.
‘‘I thought that was the key to the race. I thought there were quick beginners there and if we could get away it just took away the extra work he was going to have to do.’’
While Lazarus was in front and out of trouble, some of his rivals were in turmoil behind him.
The winner’s stablemate, Dream About Me, and driver Tim Williams were wiped out of the race shortly after the start when the mare collided with Seal The Deal, whose driver, Ricky May, was tipped from his sulky, .
While the two reinsmen untangled themselves, second favourite Heaven Rocks galloped wildly further out on the track, losing valuable ground
Purdon was unaware of what had happened behind him and set about making it impossible for his rival drivers to catch Lazarus.
‘‘He made such a great beginning I thought I would make the others work if they wanted to have a look at him. That was the reason I kept rolling along.’’
As hard as they tried, no horse could get near the defending champion as he went on to reel off a sizzling 54.4sec last 800m to win and send the cup day crowd into a frenzy.
Among those cheering was a nervous Gavin Chin, the Dunedin cobreeder of Lazarus with Brian West, of Christchurch.
‘‘I was so nervous during the race I could not sit still,’’ he said.
Chin was completely lost for word to describe the feeling of watching Lazarus win.
‘‘You honestly can’t describe the feeling — it is totally indescribable.’’
Purdon confirmed Lazarus will leave New Zealand tomorrow to race in the Interdominions in Perth, starting on November 24.
Otago horse Titan Banner’s chances were effectively extinguished after he lost the perfect oneone sit when Australian raider and eventual third placegetter Tiger Tara galloped in front on him.
Tiger Tara’s gallop was put down to the horse jumping a marker peg that was displaced and lay on the track after the collision between Dream About Me and Seel The Deal.
The incident caused Titan Banner’s driver Dexter Dunn to take evasive action and move wider on the track.
From there, ninthplaced Titan Banner was in a hopeless position in the run home, which Dunn said cost the horse a potential topthree placing.
Tiger Tara picked himself up again to run third, behind runnerup Jack’s Legend.
UNBEATEN 3yrold Chase Auckland’s sizzling national recordbreaking time was only part of the tale of his win in yesterday’s Sires’ Stakes Final at Addington.
The Auckland Reactor gelding paced the fastest 1950m in national history and did it with such ease at the finish cotrainer and driver Natalie Rasmussen had time to salute the roaring Addington crowd.
While Chase Auckland’s time of 2.16.10 was stunning, Rasmussen’s assessment of the horse after the group 1 event was even more remarkable.
The champion horsewoman, who is not known to overhype horses — but is known for astute judgement of horseflesh — labelled him harness racing’s next superstar after his win.
‘‘I think he is going to be a very serious horse when he grows up.
‘‘I know he has not had to do all the work yet but I think he has got the grit and the speed.’’
What particularly struck Rasmussen about Chase Auckland’s win was the way the horse felt travelling in the trail behind leader King Of Swing.
Despite the New Zealand record pace of the race, the unbeaten 3yrold felt like he was travelling at halfpace.
‘‘He sits on good speed. It felt like we were walking and I was thinking ‘Gee are we going to get going soon?’, because he was actually getting a bit aggressive.
‘’I think he is a pretty serious horse.’’
Earlier on the Addington programme, trotter Great Things Happen effectively turned the group 1 New Zealand Trotting Freeforall into a trial.
The 6yrold ran away from his rivals and gave trainerdriver Gavin Smith his first group 1 training victory in the $100,000 race.
So comprehensive was the win, the final 300m of the race turned into a training hitout as Smith sat motionless in the sulky behind the favourite for Friday’s Dominion.
Smith confirmed after the threelength victory that it was as easy as it looked,
‘‘It was, really. He did that easy,’’ he said.
Smith is also expecting his impressive trotter to handle the threeday backup into Friday’s Dominion with similar ease.
‘‘I don’t think backing up will be a problem at all, really.’’
Although the victory will serve to further endorse the giant trotter’s favouritism for the 3200m feature, Smith is not getting ahead of himself.
‘‘He has showed he showed that he was up to those trotters today, but it is another step up to Bordeaux and some others on Friday.
‘‘But I do not think it will worry him.’
‘‘Unfortunately, with the freeforall being today and the Dominion being on Friday some of the better ones are not there.’’
Great Things Happen created his own luck with his good manners yesterday.
‘‘I was a little bit lucky. Without him [Ronald J] galloping I might not have got off the fence. I was pulling back to get off but when he galloped I changed my mind. So I was a little bit lucky.’’
Great Things Happen also entered the national record books yesterday.
His 2.21.7 time equalled the mark Monbet set by winning the same race last year.