Berriesandcherries tough win in Trotters Marathon

Former Victorian mare Berriesandcherries (Crazed) open her Queensland account  when she outstayed her harness racing rivals to take out the Listed Our Overandova Trotters Marathon at Albion Park last night.

Trained and driven by Brendan Barnes, Berriesandcherries stepped cleanly from the pole but Barnes was content to allow the favourite Hide and Seek to stroll to the lead.

Second favourite Golden Sunset was taken up by Nathan Dawson to sit outside the leader with Gee Cee Calder having a one out and one back trail.

Despite having by far the harder run, Golden Sunset eventually got the better of Hide and Seek and when she drew clear on the final bend, it looked as if she would succeed. However Berriesandcherries who had done no work with a trail eased out and was just too strong at the finish to win by just over a metre from Golden Sunset with a Love Gun coming from nowhere to flash home for third.

BERRIESANDCHERRIES MAR 22 REPLAY

Berriesandcherries was a well raced mare in Victoria and she had won at Melton and recently had taken out the Wedderburn Trotters Cup.

Berriesandcherries rated 2.1.5 (creating a new track record) for the gruelling 3157 metres journey which will be the the same distance in the Inter Dominion Trotters final this July.

New trainer driver Brendan Barnes hasn’t had the mare that long.

“I go her last Monday week. She’d had a hard run when she third in the Boort Cup. She then went to Sydney where she was stuck with the Cyclone. She had a few days off”.

“I jogged her on Monday then gave her a few steady 2 mile trots this week. I actually went down to Bendigo about three to four years ago for the junior drivers series. The mare was in a race at Bendigo and I drove her that night and won on her.”

“The owners wanted her to come up here for ages. After winning a few country cups they wanted to set her for the Marathon.”

“I’ll look to run her a fortnight between races mainly in discretionary handicaps.”

The runner Golden Sunset was outstanding in her gallant second and she lost no admirers. She will no doubt have some interesting encounters with Berriesandcherries in the future.

Harness racing patrons were given a rare treat later in the night when Leap to Fame (Bettors Delight) ran a new track record of 1.48.6 in an awesome display in the Open Class Pace. This was Leap to Fame’s final run before he travels to New Zealand to contest the $1 million Cambridge slot race on Friday 4 April.

On that run he looks razor sharp to tackle his rivals in New Zealand.

For complete race results, click here.

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink