Bits and Pieces from Terry Gange

VICTORIA’S popular Sanderson family has achieved the main mission in a trip home to Sydney, qualifying for the prestigious NSW Derby for the first time – with not one, but both of their classy harness racing three-year-olds.

Both Dangerous (Sweet Lou) and Catalpa Rescue (American Ideal) won through at the weekend to next Saturday night’s (Mar 4) $200,000 final to be run at Menangle.

Formerly based at NSW headquarters, Shane and Naomi Sanderson decided to shift to Charlton in northcentral Victoria in early 2021 to give their teenage children Ryan and Abby more opportunities in the sport.

And it’s been a winning move. Ryan has developed into one of Victoria’s brighter prospects, while younger sister Abby has come on in leaps and bounds, particularly this season with a first Group One victory to her name.

On Saturday night Catalpa Rescue showed he’s up to the fight with a narrow, but tough win in the second of two Derby heats last Saturday night, while Dangerous filled third spot in the opening heat behind smart Kiwi pacer Alta Meteor.

The two stablemates are raced by an enthusiastic group of owners mainly from the Birchip region including Paul and Danny Lowry, John Wilson, Leon Hogan, Rob Hodge and Max Dillon.

With Abby on the sidelines through suspension, Ryan took the reins on the pair in the heats. Ryan has a great affinity with Dangerous so he’ll be back on him in the big final, while Abby will be reunited with Catalpa Rescue.

“Abby’s suspension ends this Wednesday. She’s been in charge of things back home, and doing a super job with our team,” Shane said.

After mapping out a Sydney campaign months ago, Shane headed up there earlier this month with a team of six. He’s been successful with Sweet Agenda, Rumble Stride, Sahara Sirocco and Catalpa Rescue.

Last Wednesday he posted a two-state “Sahara” double, with “Sirocco” successful at Bathurst while “Tiger” got the money at Mildura— the pacer’s 20th lifetime win and cracked $150K in stakes.

Leading NSW gun driver Cam Hart, who worked for Sanderson in Sydney, chalked up his 800th career win on Rumble Stride at Menangle.

“It was quite fitting because Cam was with us for a long while and we had a great relationship— it was a bit of a coincidence that his 700th victory was on one of our horses too, Timely Sovereign back in August last year,” Shane said.

And a word of warning – it’s no secret the Birchip boys know how to party, so there’s a big chance Menangle will be painted red next weekend!

FORMER Aussie pin-up pacer Lochinvar Art (Modern Art) faces a tough test this week to keep his unbeaten US record intact.

“Arty” has drawn the outside alley in a $36,000 ($50,000 Aust) open event at Yonkers in New York on Monday (12.20pm Tuesday AEST).

Owned by Kevin Gordon, of Newcastle, the pacer has been awesome this preparation with victories at the Meadowlands and then Yonkers.

Now with the Shane and Lauren Tritton team at Pine Bush, about an hour from New York, Lochinvar Art is being targeted to the rich Borgata Series at Yonkers, which is expected to carry a final worth about $700,000 ($1.1M Aust).

“I spoke with Shane after the fields had been released for our next run and he was quite clear that it was going to be difficult to try and get across from out there in barrier eight,” Gordon said.

“Anyway Lauren (our driver) will come out at the start and then have to make the call. There’s a couple in the race like The Ideal Dancer and Nicholas Beach who are very nice horses. The Tritton’s are very pleased with the way ‘Arty’ is working, so with an ounce of luck, you never know.”

Lochinvar Art has now had 58 career starts for 30 wins and 22 placings. He was prepared in Australia by David Moran, of Shepparton, who had the horse since a yearling and took him to wins including the Chariots Of Fire and Victoria and Hunter Cups.

His fastest winning time was 1.48-6 over 1720m at Melton.

IT’S ‘horses for courses’, according to the old racing wisdom, and at the tight Mildura track in far northwest Victoria, there’s generally plenty of evidence to support it.

But at the club’s latest meeting last Wednesday night (Feb 22) the spotlight was instead on regular drivers—four in particular who each went home with trebles on a 12-event program.

Champion South Australian reinsman Wayne Hill, a regular border-hopper to Mildura fixtures, booted home two of the first three winners – Illawong Kim (Somebeachsomewhere) and The Bands Playing (American Ideal), then later on the program made it three for the night with Gracie Cullen (Alta Christiano).

Charlton young gun Ryan Sanderson landed Ultimate Trouble (Courage Under Fire) in an early race and then Spring Delight (Bettors Delight) and Sahara Tiger (Art Major) in consecutive races.

Gifted reinswoman Michelle Phillips, who recently posted the 250th win of her career, got a double for the Andrew Vozlic stable with Son Of Zodiac (Artistic Fella) and Half Moon Beach (Gold Dust Beach) before an all-the-way win with Denzil Denbro (Rock N Roll Heaven).

And a Mildura regular for probably the last 12 years Ellen Tormey, of Bendigo, joined in with the treble brigade, putting in polished displays on All Da Rage (Betterthancheddar), Avoca Blues (Downbytheseaside) and Moreartsthanclass (Modern Art).

And you can’t help but think they could dominate again at this Wednesday night’s (March 1) Mildura meeting. Hill is engaged to drive in each of the 12 races on the program, Sanderson has been booked in 11, Tormey 10 and Phillips nine.

But Jack Laugher, who also has uncanny judgement on the tight Mildura circuit, and who didn’t make the trip to the northwest last week, could also have something to say about that.  He too has a booking in every race, including some strong each way chances.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink