One horse, one night, two Group 1 races
Just days after driving his first Group 1 winner, Brad Williamson wants to win two in a night but with the same horse. That is the unusual goal the Oamaru horseman has for Friday as Majestic Man tackles Australia’s richest trotting race, the Great Southern Star, outside Melbourne.
Williamson is in Victoria driving and acting as caretaker trainer for Majestic Man, trained by his father Phil, and the pair smashed some of Victoria’s best in the A$50,000 Dullard Cup at Melton last Saturday.
That was Brad’s first group driving success and that goal was one of the reasons he has agreed to travel to Victoria and possibly New South Wales with Majestic Man, even though he will almost certainly have to do two weeks’ quarantine when he returns to New Zealand in March.
“It was great to get a Group 1 and the horse is flying,” said Williamson.
While one Group 1 win is good, two is better, and the Great Southern Star format provides that in the space of a few hours this Friday.
The race is made up of two A$50,000 heats, comprising different horses, over 1720m staged early in the night, with the first three home in each heat and the fastest beaten runners heading to the A$300,000 final two hours later, also over the sprint trip.
The heats are also Group 1 so Majestic Man and Williamson get two bites at the apple on the same night.
Heats and final racing has rarely been tried in New Zealand but is more regular in the United States, with races such as the Little Brown Jug, and more famously in Sweden for their greatest trotting race, the Elitlopp, which the Great Southern Star was based on.
The heats and final format was used for the Great Southern Star between 2013 and 2016, and New Zealand-trained horses won three of those four, with Vulcan, Stent and Speeding Spur.
The race then changed to being a one-race 2760m mobile but is now back in the heats and final format, which creates a lot of intrigue at Friday’s meeting, at which all races are for trotters.
The biggest change between this week and the former heats and final format is that the barrier draw for the final is random, whereas in the past, the connections of the horse drew their final barriers based on heat finishing position, so the heat winners got the best draws.
“That would actually suit us better because if we can lead and win our heat rolling along, we could have picked our own barrier for the final,” said Williamson. “But now we could win our heat and end up with the outside of the second line in the final and be in trouble. So that draw is going to be crucial.”
While Majestic Man has been somewhat of a bridesmaid in major New Zealand races, Williamson says a change of driving tactics this season has made him the ideal Great Southern Star horse.
“When he first got into open class, he was still learning, and Dad used to like me driving him with a sit.
“But now he is older and stronger, I prefer to lead and run them along, like he did last Saturday and when we beat Sundees Son at Cambridge on Christmas Eve.
“Melton being a speed track, and being on the markers so crucial, the racing style here suits him.”
Safely through this Friday, Majestic Man still has three more Group 1 aims in Victoria and NSW before he expects to enter quarantine in midMarch and return to work in April.
That means he could miss one start on his own stable star Cracker Hill, as he returns to racing around then, with the Jewels at Cambridge in June his main goal, even at the expense of the Rowe Cup.
“I want to give him an easier back end to his 4-year-old season, so we might miss the open class races and concentrate on the Jewels.”
The other New Zealand interest on Victorian harness racing’s biggest weekend comes with Triple Eight drawn one in the A$500,000 Hunter Cup on Saturday night, which gives him at least a place chance against hot favourite Lochinvar Art.
Triple Eight is transferring to a Victorian stable this week and will do his future racing in Australia.