Former Kiwi in the hotseat

Talk about being the man in the hotseat – Jack Trainor is on track for a bumper afternoon at Menangle today, and price assessors obviously agree, with the former Kiwi harness racing horseman listed to drive as many as six favourites on an eight-race program.

Three of the eight races are heats of the lucrative TAB Regional Championships and Trainor has perfectly placed some of his team so that all three have a serious shot of success in their respective heats.

The first of those is Surf Ace, listed as the $5 third favourite in Race 4.

“I was pleasantly surprised with how he raced last week and was not beaten all that far, but he also has to be driven a certain way to be a chance,” said Trainor.

“We can’t use him early and he’ll be driven for his speed.

“Being a small field will help and although Mick Doltoff’s horse, Lets Get Rockin, will be hard to beat, if my bloke gets the right drag into the race he’ll be finishing strongly.”

Trainor then links with former Tasmanian pacer Iylac Beach ($2 favourite) in Race 5 and is quite buoyant about his chances.

“He came from Tassie with really good form and he won a couple quickly and then the wheels sort of came off him a bit, so I have given him a couple of weeks off and held him back waiting for this race and his work at home indicates he’s back on track and going as well as he was when he first came over six or seven months back.

“I expect him to be a really big player in his race.”

Trainor’s third Regional Championships hope is Stravinsky ($1.80 favourite) in Race 6, who has drawn perfectly in gate one and is expected to show a major improvement on how his form appears.

Stravinsky has only been with Trainor for five starts, with just one placing in that time.

“If you look deep into his form he’s been racing against horses like Ideal Dan and has had no luck in his races,” said Trainor.

“He’s been caught in the chair or done things wrong early, which has made his form look a bit patchy.

“But he’s a bit like Iylac Beach; we’ve got him back to where we want him, he has good gate speed and he’ll be suited by the distance.

“I expect him to be my best chance on the day.”

To view the fields for Menangle on Tuesday click here.

By Michael Court for HRNSW