Defending champ draws well in Great Southern Star heat

Star trotter Majestuoso (Majestic Son) has been sandwiched in a tantalising front line for the first stage of his Woodlands Stud Great Southern Star harness racing title defence on Friday night (Feb. 3).

The Andy Gath-trained squaregaiter will tackle the series first-up from a brief let-up and following treatment to his hocks after galloping in January 7’s Group 1 Maori Mile.

The seven-year-old will start from barrier three in the night’s second heat, with noted speed runners Mufasa Metro (one) and Majestic Man (two) drawn inside him.

Mighty mare Im Ready Jet has barrier four to add further intrigue, with Maori Mile champ Aldebaran Zeus out wide in seven.

Overall series favourite Just Believe will tackle the night’s other heat from barrier eight, a clash that’ll include Majestuoso’s in-form stablemate Chinese Whisper (one), Brent Lilley’s top mare Queen Elida (six) and Chris Lang’s emerging gelding Ollivici (seven).

Gath said it was a tricky draw for his defending champion, and despite being almost a month without a race, felt he could still be a major player once again.

“I’m not thrilled with the barrier draw, being drawn outside Majestic Man. He can run pretty fast times, so it won’t be easy,” he said.

“He’s well, I expect him to go well and if things go right he’s still capable of winning it.

“He won’t be rolling up in a wheelchair or anything. He’s in pretty good order.”

Gath said he would have liked Majestuoso to trial at Melton on Monday night, but with those cancelled the master trainer decided he would tackle the Great Southern Star first-up since early January.

“It doesn’t matter, we’ll just soldier on,” he said.

“His work has been A+, he’s really on song and everything, but he had that little set-back and hasn’t raced for a while.

“He’s a quality horse and rises to the occasion when the big races are on.”

While Majestuoso appears Gath’s major chance of more Great Southern Star glory – he also won it with champion Tornado Valley in 2020 and 2021 and Glenferrie Typhoon in 2017 – the stable has the exciting Chinese Whisper in the first of the night’s qualifiers.

“I know it’s a long time since he’s seen the arm of the mobile, but he has got good gate speed,” Gath said.

“Whether he measures up or not – I suspect that he might. I suspect that he will measure up to this class and he’s got the barrier draw obviously…”

Gath agreed that Majestuoso was his number one seed in the Great Southern Star.

“He’s beat all these horses before and Chinese Whisper hasn’t. He might, but he hasn’t done it yet,” Gath said.

The Great Southern Star is one of racing’s most unique events.

It requires horses to compete in 1720m heats at the start of the night (races three and four) before qualifiers back-up for the $300,000 Group 1 final later on the card (race nine at 10.05pm).

The first three horses across the line in each heat automatically qualify for the final, with the next four fastest trotters on gross time sneaking through to make up the field of 10.

The heats and final are all legs of the Aurora Australis series, which takes in the state’s best trotting races through January and February.

Aldebaran Zeus is currently leading the overall standings on 13 points, with Just Believe on 11 and Majestic Man eight.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria