We are blessed to have her join us straight after the retirement of the mighty Just Believe, who did so much for trotting, in this part of the world and beyond, with the huge international harness racing following he gained during his 2023 Swedish campaign.
Keayang Zahara has the talent and potential to do the same.
But the Lee and Craven clans will bide their time.
Jason Lee admits the family has sat around the table and talked about the Elitlopp and other possible international adventures.
If she takes the step to the open class as everyone expects, the offers will come from everywhere.
They are certainly on the radar, but not in the next twelve months.
Excitingly for trotting fans in this part of the world, the focus is on winning some big races Down Under and building experience for the young mares before they attempt to conquer the world.
“For all the talent she’s shown and the things she’s done, other than the Bill Collins Sprint, she hasn’t really raced or won anything in a real open class,” Lee said.
“We won’t look at Sweden or anything like that next year. If we’re still having this conversation in 12 months’ time and she dominates, then we’ll think about it seriously.”
“Despite all the nice trotters we have had and have now, we still haven’t won the big races. Apart from the Hammerhead (Mile) we haven’t won any big ones yet.
“Paddy (Lee) and I were talking the other day about how much we would like to win a Great Southern Star or an Inter Dominion.
“They mean a lot. They are our targets with Zahara and Ballerini, at least for now.
“Look at someone like Andy Gath, who has had so many top trotters and won five Great Southern Stars.
“If you look at that, we’ve only just started.
“Paddy said how much he would like to win the Great Southern Star. We felt like last year he was the one who got away with Keayang Chucky. Two years ago he ran third and it was great but we felt he was better and ready to take the win this year and came so close but ran third again.
“It’s a huge target for us.”
After much deliberation, the Clan have decided to chase Keayang Zahara’s ninth Group 1 win at the $150,000 Group 1 Big Square at Albion Park on Saturday evening.
It’s fair to say it should be a walk in the park if she brings her A-game.
Then it’s back home for the six-race trotting series during the Summer of Glory in Victoria from January 10 to February 14.
It starts with the Group 1 Maori Mile in Bendigo.
Any trotter that can make four legs will receive a $500,000 bonus, but it must include the heaviest and largest leg: the $250,000 Group 1 Great Southern Star on February 14.
The new series received another boost this weekend as former Inter Dominion winner The Locomotive returned to racing with an easy win at Menangle. It was his first start since returning from a Swedish raid mid-year.
In addition to the Victorian series, Keayang Zahara’s targets are the $100,000 Group 1 Hammerhead Mile at Menangle, $NZ600,000 TAB Trot in Cambridge in March (Victorians have won the past two in Just Believe and Arcee Phoenix) in March and the $500,000 Brisbane Inter Dominion series at Albion Park in July.
Although the trotters have been getting all the attention in Team Lee lately, Jason Lee openly admits that he also wants to get pacers into the biggest races.
“That’s a must, especially for me,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the trotters, but we have a lot of pacers and need to move some of them through to the Group 1 races.
“We had that success with players like Jilliby Kung Fu and Jilliby Nitro, but we learned from them and have now developed a completely new training setup with the track and the pool.
“We have some good pacers at home and some really well-bred specimens coming through, such as a sister to Marketplace (New Zealand’s three-year-old star), from Bettors Delight.
“We also have a very good opinion of Keayang Hollywood. He has won five out of six, but has a few problems.”
Through Adam Hamiltonfor Harness Racing Australia
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