Cranbourne chasing a Miracle Mile start

There is a touch of Miracle Mile flavour at Melton on Saturday night.

Trainer David Aiken will use Melton’s 2240m free-for-all to sharpen-up exciting Kiwi harness racing import Cranbourne (Sir Lincoln) for his Miracle Mile quest.

Like most Miracle Mile hopefuls, Aiken will then head to Menangle for the qualifying sprints next Saturday night.

“He deserves a shot at it, he’s a pretty good horse, this one,” Aiken said.

Cranbourne has won two of his three starts for Aiken since being bought from NZ by Aiken for leviathan US owner Steve Finklestein.

Plans to whisk Cranbourne across to the US to continue his career with trainer “Nifty” Norman have been delayed slightly.

“He was to leave not long after the Miracle Mile, but the flights have changed a bit. He would’ve had to leave earlier and it’s still very cold in New York, so he’ll stay here longer,” Aiken said.

“There’s a flight at the start of May, so I’ll get to race him here for another month or so.”

Cranbourne impressed winning his first Australian run when he led throughout in the Shepparton Cup, beating Inter Dominion winner and subsequent Hunter Cup runner-up I Cast No Shadow.

“He backed-up at Ballarat the week after and just got too keen over the long trip,” Aiken said. “We just put the pen through that run.

“It certainly didn’t surprise us when he turned-up and won so well on Hunter Cup night. It was a drop back in class and he was back to his best.”

Cranbourne is the standout class runner at Melton, but will need some luck from inside the back row (gate eight).

“I had a gut feeling we’d draw there,” sighed Aiken. “It’s not ideal, but he follows out a quick beginner and there’s only two runners off the back row, so Nathan (Jack, driver) has got options.

“He should be hard to beat with any luck and then we’ll head to Sydney for what looks like being very strong sprints the week after.”

Former Cranbourne Cup winner  Supreme Dominator (gate five) and Ballarat Cup placegetter Triple Eight (six) are the other class runners on Saturday night.

Aiken will also have an eye on the Miracle Mile contenders in Friday night’s $100,000 Newcastle Mile where classy Kiwi stablemates B D Joe and Alta Wiseguy have drawn superbly in barriers one and two respectively.

Exciting WA speedster Pinny Tiger makes his NSW debut and will surely look for the front earlier from gate six.

Top Victorian trainer Emma Stewart is taking last year’s Newcastle Mile winner Mach Dan back to defend his title after a slashing fourth in the Hunter Cup, but he has to overcome a wide draw (gate 10).

Only the winner of the Newcastle Mile gets a guaranteed start in the $1mil Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 4.

The beaten brigade will have to back-up in one of the two qualifying sprints at Menangle on Saturday week.

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by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Australia