Pin-up girl gears up for Queensland

Crack trotting mare Pink Galahs is at the head of a shortlist for a Queensland winter carnival campaign later in the month by Ecklin South harness racing trainer Mattie Craven.

According to Craven, Pink Galahs certainly “needed the trial” at Terang on Tuesday night, but he says it will have primed her for her first start in three months at Melton tomorrow night.

“She needed it, but she will take a lot of benefit from it.  They went slow early in the trial, and she was a bit keen. She got home in a nice quarter, but she will need the run on Saturday night, too,” he said.

“It was good to let her see the gate in the trial and let have a bowl around and get that out of her system.”

Pink Galahs (Skyvalley-Sweetasay (Tennotrump) is a winner of 13 of her 25 lifetime starts, along with six placings, for over $227,000.  She won the Victoria Trotters Oaks G1 of $60,000 last season, and the Haras Des Trotteurs Victoria Trotters Derby as well as defeating older horses in the G1 Aldebaran Park Bill Collins Trotters Sprint.

Tomorrow night she will meet a strong lineup in the Gr 3 Woodlands Stud Noopy Kiosk Trotters Free For All.

Then, all being well, she will contest the $30,000 Gr 2 IRT Matriarch Trotters four-and-five-year-old Mares event at Melton the following week, before Craven’s team heads to Queensland.

Ahead are either the Darrell Alexander Trotting Championship heats and final feature or the Queensland Trotters Cup on the final night of the carnival.

Craven’s rising star pacer Kowalski Analysis (Roll With Joe-Dream Away Jo (Dream Away) finished third only 3.9 metres behind Expensive Ego in the $200,000 G1 Chariots of Fire at Menangle 1:48.9 earlier this year, at just his 20th racestart.

The gelding has also returned in good condition from his freshen up, duly winning his trial at Terang on Tuesday, running 1:58.7 on the rain-affected surface.

“We’re hoping for a start in the (Gr 1 three- and four-year-old feature) The Rising Sun,” Craven said.

“I’m pretty pleased with his trial effort, and he will probably trial again at Ballarat on Tuesday. He had a good blow afterwards but seems to have come through really well and at this stage he’s certainly on track for Queensland.

“He’s come back bigger and stronger and hopefully that will reflect positively for him somewhere along the line.”

Craven said he was planning to take a team of between four and six for the northern campaign.

“I’m also looking at taking a three year old Bettor Call Me, who’s not guaranteed a start in the derbies, but ran a nice second this week in a race at the Terang meeting.  The run will do him good and he’s going around at Bendigo again next Tuesday.  As long as he continues to improve, we will probably take him.

“Itzamajor Surprise wasn’t super last week at Melton, but she’s going around again this week.  When she’s able to race on the pace, she seems to do a lot better, and I think a Queensland trip would do her the world of good.

“Helgart has also stepped up recently (with a win and a second at Melton at her past two starts) so she is a big chance of being put on the truck as well.”

Craven said he was still finalising plans and a departure date for the trip north.

“It just depends on how it all works out, and of course we need to just keep an eye on the COVID quarantine arrangements,” Craven said.

“But hopefully, being from regional Victoria, it will all be ok.  You can never be 100 percent confident these days, but we just have to plan to be there for the good races.

“The weather we have had down here the past week, if we didn’t need to wait for these races ahead, we’d probably be gone already!”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink