‘Kez’ in town for the Crown

Leading New South Wales harness racing trainer KerryAnn Morris loves the trotting gait.

Morris and husband Rob have invested significantly in trotters, playing a major role in the rise of squaregaiting in NSW.

“I fell in love with the trotter from the first time I sat behind one,” she said.

“They’re a bigger challenge to drive. There’s more technique required.

“We really enjoy having them around the stable.”

Morris said while NSW still had a relatively small pool of trotters, it was gradually building.

“It’s on the way up and we’ve invested a lot into the trotter, racing many ourselves.”

Their Lucky Lodge operation has already landed a number of features.

They include wins by Aldebaran Ursula in last year’s Group 2 NSW Trotters Oaks and Dreambigaimhigh in the Group 1 NSW 2YO Challenge Final in July.

There’s no doubt what she would like to do next is land one of the big trotting classics in Victoria.

Morris is making that bid in the Breeders Crown with a group of two-year-olds in heats at Maryborough on Thursday.

She arrived at Shepparton, where she is basing her team with young trainer Conor Crook, on Tuesday with her heat starters. They include filly Aldebaran Bree, and male stablemates Aquila Castello, Dreambigaimhigh and Aldebaran Jensen.

Morris also accepted with unraced Claudys King, but he has instead been sent to the paddock.

Dreambigaimhigh and Aldebaran Jensen go head-to-head in the second heat for colts and geldings (2190m), with Morris nominating the latter as her best prospect in the series.

“We’re not coming down with our hopes too high,” she said.

“They’re ready to go, so we thought we might as well give it a go – test the water.”

Aldebaran Jensen has had two starts for two seconds at Menangle.

“He’s going to be a really nice horse,” Morris said.

“He is still maturing. He’s just a big raw horse at the moment and he’ll be better next year.

“He’s largely come down for the experience – something he will benefit from.”

Morris said Dreambigaimhigh was also a nice type, but was probably at the end of his preparation.

“He’ll go okay, but he isn’t as sharp as he was a few months ago,” she said.

Morris said they would be rapt to get any of their runners into the Group 1 $100,000 finals at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday, November 19.

The Maryborough program features two Breeders Crown heats for each of the two-year-old and three-year-old trotting fillies, and colts and geldings, with the first six to finish in each to qualify for finals.

Morris also two runners at Melton on Saturday night – Petes Said So in the Melton City Council Sprint (1720m) and trotter Phoebe Onyx in the Group 3 Aldebaran Park RC Freestone Free For All (2240m).

Phoebe Onyx is locked in for the Inter Dominion Trotting Championship later this month, having gained a golden ticket into the series when he won first-up from New Zealand in the Group 2 McGrath Cup at Menangle.

Morris said he had made the trip to do some acclimatising before the championship, which begins with heats in Ballarat on Saturday, November 26.

Petes Said So is also being targeted at the Inter Dominion Pacing Championship, but has some work to do to get into the series after dropping to 40 in rankings.

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by David Brehaut, for HRV