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Saturday night’s Garrard’s Horse and Hound Bendigo Pacing Cup is rich with seasoned veterans who have aged like a fine wine.
Nine-year-old Triple Eight and eight-year-olds Hurricane Harley and Max Delight are all well in the market for the $75,000 classic, in which they will build on their collective 282 starts that have yielded more than $2.35m in stakes and reinforced the outstanding resilience of the standardbred.
“They just last,” said David Aiken, trainer of Max Delight, who along with Hurricane Harley is sired by the great Bettors Delight.
“For a horse (Bettors Delight) who’s well into his 20s, he’s still producing all these good horses year after year. He’s just a great stallion. Max Delight is out of a good dam in Lady Euthenia; he is bred to be a good horse.”
Max Delight returns to the scene of his greatest triumph, Lords Raceway, where he won the 2021 Victoria Cup.
Successive wins, including at Melton on December 23 when he crashed the line in the Benstud Sokyola Sprint, have suggested the champ is back.
“He’s in good form at the moment and we are going into the race as good as he has gone for a long time,” Aiken said. “(Previously) when he was going really good he was never drawing any good, like horrendously bad.”
The draw has not been particularly kind, with Max Delight to start in gate nine directly outside Hurricane Harley on the back row, but Aiken is confident leading reinsman Nathan Jack can build on his recent connection with the pacer that’s produced three wins from five steers.
Beyond Delight is the early favourite with Hurricane Harley and Max Delight on the next line, while Triple Eight will launch from gate three for Jess Tubbs and Greg Sugars at a double-figure odds.
As always, Triple Eight will have a bit extra in his corner in Father Brian Glasheen, who was gifted an ownership share. “He’s been working well and running well,” Glasheen said.
“I have been at Melton the last couple of starts, he is running without luck.” The Garrard’s Horse and Hound Bendigo Pacing Cup is at 9.10pm and can be watched live with extended coverage on TrotsVision.com.au.
Harness racing heritage on show
Track goers can watch history in the making and history made at Lords Raceway tomorrow night , with Bendigo’s cup meeting also a gateway to the Victorian Harness Racing Heritage Collection.
The featured items include photographs, clothing and memorabilia dating back to the club’s inception in 1855. Bendigo Harness Racing Club manager Erik Hendrix said it was a great reflection of harness racing’s rich Victorian history.
“We have stuff dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s with different items people have been donating over the years,” Hendrix said. “There is a lot to entertain lovers of the sport.”
Taking pride of place in the collection is an ode to a hall of fame legend, Maori’s Idol, as well as famed equipment and silks.
Hendrix said much of the credit for the collection belongs to the late Noel Ridge and his friend Norm West, who “were two friends collecting a lot of material at their houses”.
“Their wives said they are collecting too much and they need to remove it,” Hendrix said. “So that’s how it started at the Bendigo harness club.”
The heritage collection is free to enter and open all race days, including at tonight’s Bendigo cup meeting. Those attending will also be able to enjoy live entertainment, food trucks and children’s activities.
TUNE IN at BENDIGO on Saturday
First Race: 5.52pm Last Race: 10.43pm
Racecaller: Lachie McIntosh with TrotsVision's Ryan Phelan, Bronte Nieuwenburg and Kirsten Graham.
TrotsVision: WATCH LIVE
SEN Track: LISTEN LIVE
RSN 927: LISTEN LIVE
Winner of the Week
CHEROKEE, by American Ideal out of Little Red Cloud, winner of the Garrars Horse & Hound Young Guns Series race at Melton on December 31.
Breed your next winner with Woodlands Stud, supporter of Trots Centre
