In-form trotter eyes up Open Class company

Promising trotter Jungle Eyes (Peak) will make his first venture in open class harness racing company at Tabcorp Park Menangle tomorrow night in the Airclean Filters Trotters Mobile (Race 5).

A winner of his past six starts, including a last-start victory in the Canberra Trotters Cup, the four-year-old gelding is trained in Canberra by Steven Lee and is driven by his grandson Jimmy Locke.

Locke believes that what Jungle Eyes has done to date is enough to warrant having a crack in open class company with him, flagging that it may be the start of a busy time for the gelding, with a Queensland trip planned to contest some feature trotters’ races over their winter carnival provided all goes well tomorrow night.

“I am really excited and looking forward to seeing how he steps up against the open class field tomorrow night,” said Locke.

“Pop has done a great job with this bloke and currently has him flying.

“Based on his recent efforts I feel that he has earnt his chance to aim higher.

“Tomorrow night’s race has its share of class and depth in it, but we are keen to have a crack and will take it how it comes.

“If he performs creditably and gets through the run well, we will then seriously consider a trip to Queensland for the bigger races up there where I feel the style of racing would suit him.”

Jungle Eyes is out of Yankee Eyes, a mare that Steven Lee trained and drove himself.

A handy trotter in her own right, Yankee Eyes was the winner of 11 races, eight of them being at Tabcorp Park Menangle.

Meanwhile, there is a smorgasbord of racing programmed throughout New South Wales both this afternoon and tonight with three race meeting being held around the state.

An eight-race program at Wagga this afternoon will be followed by night fixtures at Dubbo and Newcastle and on paper there appears to be some value bets sprinkled amongst the three venues.

The best of them however comes up at Newcastle where Flying Shard (race 7) will attempt to break through for her maiden win after eleven attempts.

Coming off successive second placings at Newcastle behind Killara Dragon, the Glenn Powell trained mare gets her chance from gate two with Elly Chapple in the gig.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Dumesny, for HRNSW