This provides punters with the most obvious multi-anchors for the final meeting on the big running circuit before the biggest day.
Ya Rite Darl understandably opened $1.20 favorite for tonight’s Horses Perform Better On Betavet Trot, a race she entered only as an afterthought.
“We were actually going to take her to Addington on a Saturday morning for some quick work,” says driver John Dunn.
“But when I looked at the nominations for this race, we thought we might as well get in there.
“She’s doing really well, so it won’t hurt her.”
That means one more race for Ya Rite Darl before she takes on the biggest race of her career, the $500,000 Ascent at Addington in a week.
Although she looked smart last season, she was the big improver in this class this spring and all she had to do was trot to win tonight.
Team Dunn takes two other young trotting fillies in Petite Armor and Flying Dreams to the opening race tonight and John says the former is the better hope, even after her expensive gallop starting last.
“That was actually my fault. I made her hit her head on the phone and she galloped, so I put that down to driver error,” he admits.
“I think she will trot this week and she should be fitter than the other filly (Flying Dreams), even if there is not much in between.”
The stable has Very Majestic tonight in Heat 14 of the World Driving Champs with Michael Nimczyk in the sulky and while the field is not intimidating, Dunn says she is a mare who needs the right run to win.
Away from the WDC heats, tonight’s other highlights include an even field of two-year-olds in Race 9 and a red-hot debutante in the final race in the well-bred Transonic.
For full race entries, click here.
Through Michael Guerinfor Harness Racing New Zealand
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