New move now paying dividends for Stanley

LITTLE wonder leading Victorian horseman Michael Stanley has decided to make his move to Sydney a permanent one.

Bringing a select harness racing team to train at Menangle has proven a master stroke by Stanley, who has a string of winners since renting boxes at Menangle Training Centre.

He scored another win at Menangle on Saturday night when four-year-old mare The Answer scored for in-form reinsman Will Rixon.

Stanley heads for Menangle today with even brighter prospects with three serious chances, while he also drives Fonda Rhonda for his father Ian in Race 2.

“We’re very happy with the way the team’s going,” he said.

“We brought the right bunch of horses up here and that helped.

“We arrived with about 15 and have since added a couple more.

“Hopefully we can attract a few new owners, maybe a few from down south, now that we are here. There’s the better prizemoney, so we’d like to build the metro stable up.

“We’ll stay on and I’m trying to get some more stables at the Menangle Centre.

“The Answer was much sharper scoring last night and got over a bit of a cold she had after her previous race.”

Although he loves to use champion reinsman Luke McCarthy as well as premiership frontrunner Will Rixon on many of his horses, Stanley is happy to drive them when they are unavailable.

He likes the chances of Soho Majestic in Race 1 this afternoon:

“He has stacks of ability but it still working it out.

“It looks a good race for him and the small field suits so he should go close to winning.”

“Fonda Ronda (Race 2) has loads of ability but hasn’t been putting it all together.

“All she has to do is trot and she’ll be thereabouts. She’s been a bit of a handful, so we just need her to do everything right.

“I have only had Tunbridge (Race 3) for one start and he went well in winning last week.

“He has worked well since then and is drawn well.

“He is up in grade though but if he gets a nice run I’m sure he won’t be far away and I expect him to be competitive.

“Soho The Real Deal (Race 7) has stacks of talent and that race is also a bit stronger than last week but he has good gate speed and normally puts himself into the race.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Michael Court for Harness Racing New South Wales