Sanderson aiming high with Dangerous

Shane Sanderson doesn’t need too much encouragement to declare Dangerous (Sweet Lou) the best horse to have passed through his stables during a long and successful career in harness racing.

The three-year-old colt has only had six starts, but the Charlton trainer already rates him ahead of former top-line pacer Maywyn Jasper who won a Group 1 APG final back in 2010.

“We haven’t got to the bottom of him really,” Sanderson, a winner of more than 600 races, said.

“The only time was the (Nutrien Equine Alabar Farms 2YO Pacing Colts and Geldings) final that he ran second in, and he was still coming on the line. It wasn’t as if he was beaten.

“He’s just got all the mannerisms at home. He’s very relaxed, got a good gait and doesn’t seem to have too many issues.

“He seems to be the real deal.”

The New South Wales Derby in early March is Sanderson’s “first and foremost” major target with the son of Sweet Lou, but further goals will likely include the Queensland and Victoria derbies, and earning a berth in the world’s richest harness race – the $2.1 million TAB Eureka – at Menangle on September 2.

“He’ll have a busy three-year-old year because we looked after him as a two-year-old deliberately. We missed a lot of those big races towards the end of the year,” Sanderson said.

“He’ll race in a few of the derbies and we’ve obviously got the Breeders Crown and that later, so it’s going to be a pretty busy year for him.”

Dangerous will step-out for his first big assignment of 2023 this Saturday night at Melton.

He’s drawn barrier one in the VHRC Caduceus 3YO Classic, where he will take on the exciting School Captain.

School Captain will be one of Nathan Jack’s first few runners as a trainer since 2018, with the horse recently moving into his name from that of father Russell.

While TAB markets have School Captain an odds-on favourite to win his first race back since taking out the Breeders Crown Series final for two-year-old colts and geldings on November 19, Sanderson believes his charge can produce a minor boilover.

Dangerous was a big 18.3m victor at Cobram on January 8 and thrashed his rivals by 9m at Swan Hill last week.

“We’ve got the edge in the barrier draw, so we will try and take full advantage of it,” Sanderson said.

“We’re probably going to run into him (School Captain) in the right circumstances – he’s first-up from a break and we’ve got a bit of race fitness on our side.

“School Captain looks to be an exceptional horse, so it will just be exciting if we can go with him I suppose.

“If you let him lead, you can’t probably beat him. I think we’ve probably earnt the right to hold a forward position.”

Sanderson-trained Catalpa Rescue, who is owned in the same interests as Dangerous, will also tackle the VHRC Caduceus 3YO Classic on Saturday night.

He will go around as one of the roughies of the field after landing a tricky barrier seven draw.

Saturday’s Melton meeting falls on night two of the Summer of Glory carnival, which will come to a close with the Woodlands Stud Great Southern Star and Del-Re National A. G. Hunter Cup meetings at the same track on February 3 and 4.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Tim O’Connor for Harness Racing Victoria