Danny eyes off his Eureka slot

Danny Zavitsanos will head to Melton on Saturday night hoping to add a piece to his TAB Eureka jigsaw puzzle. 

Zavitsanos, who heads up Team Zav along with his wife Jo, owns multiple Group 1 harness racing winner Petracca (Captaintreacherous) who makes his return to the race track since taking out the Victoria Derby Final in October last year. 

Petracca won a trial at Melton three weeks ago rating 1:55 and Zavitsanos said trainer Clayton Tonkin opted to ease the son of Captaintreacherous back into the fray in a NR 80 to 89 event. 

“We thought it would be better to tackle an easier race than the free for all first up,” Zavitsanos said. 

An hour later Zavitsanos will have his eyes firmly on the highly touted Tonkin prepared four-year-old High Above who will be out to atone for his inglorious ‘down the track’ effort when he galloped in the score up at Melton last Friday night. 

Despite owning Petracca, who is on the second line of Eureka betting at $7, Zavitsanos has made it clear that High Above is very much in the frame for his slot in the world’s richest harness race. 

“High Above bumped into another horse scoring up but it was a concern that he galloped and gave them 100 metre start,” he said. 

“It will be good to see them both go around on Saturday night and hopefully it will give us a clearer guide going forward to which way we go using the slot. 

Petracca and High Above are two different types of horses, Petracca has a very quick 400 metres in him while High Above is more of a strong stayer.” 

With the TAB Eureka still seven weeks away, Zavitsanos won’t be rushed into declaring his slot hand. 

“We have until a week before the race to make a call but in the ideal world we would lock it in earlier if the picture becomes clearer,” he said. 

For complete race entries, click here.

by John Dunne, for Harnesslink