Ken chasing the choccies at Stawell

Ken Tippet has turned his hand to interval training as he prepares Alpha Crucis (Four Starzzz Shark) for a tilt at the inaugural Pleasant Creek Plate on Good Friday (Apr. 7).

Based on the Great Southern Star concept of harness racing heats and a final on the same day, the new series has been designed for low-grade pacers and is a highlight of Stawell’s special Easter meeting.

Qualifiers will be run as races three and four over the 1785m sprint trip at Laidlaw Park, with the top five placegetters in each then progressing to the $10,000 final later in the afternoon.

The feature is restricted to pacers five years and older who have not won more than three lifetime races (and none in their most recent five starts). Preference in field selection was given to horses with the highest number of runs since their last victory.

And you’d have been hard pressed to label Alpha Crucis a future Pleasant Creek Plate starter back in early 2020 after the son of Four Starzzz Shark won his first two trips to the races at Bathurst.

Tippet took on training duties shortly after and then purchased the young pacer with family members, expecting to have plenty of fun with the promising bay gelding.

But there’s been more frustration than celebration as the horse remains winless since those early career triumphs more than three years ago.

“He was working okay and I thought he would win races, but he hasn’t done it. I don’t know what’s going on,” Tippet, who will drive the horse on Friday, says.

“He works really well and does everything you want him to do, but just gets to the races and hasn’t done it.

“His last couple of runs, while I know he hasn’t been placed, he’s been right up amongst them. If he had have got a crack in either of them, he probably would have won.”

Tippet said the Pleasant Creek Plate was a series he had targeted ever since discovering it on the racing calendar.

“I thought it suited him right down to the ground,” Tippet said.

“I’ve just been working him double heats, two heats a day, and I’ll just see how he goes.

“He gets a heat and then has about an hour-and-a-half or two hours off, and then goes and does another one.

“He works the two heats nearly the same, so whatever he does in the heat he should replicate in the final.”

Zero Doubt (Chris Blake), Narra Vane (Jason Ainsworth), All Saints Beach (Kenneth Taylor Jnr) and Billabong Madi (Nick Youngson) are the maiden runners throughout the heats, with Alpha Crucis having the longest losing drought of those to have won a race.

The meeting at Stawell is all about raising money for the annual Good Friday Appeal, which will help draw a close to Harness Racing Victoria’s industry-wide effort.

Double-seater sulky rides with champion reinswoman Kerryn Manning, a punters club and other activities are planned on the day, with a trainer-driver sprint down the home straight to play on the weekend’s Stawell Gift hype.

All the action will be broadcast at TrotsVision.com.au, with Toby McKinnon and Tim O’Connor to host the coverage of the meeting from 3pm until the Pleasant Creek Plate Final at 5.38pm.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria