Shane sets his sights on South Australia

Shane Sanderson loaded up the float this week and made the trek bound for Adelaide to launch a three pronged harness racing attack on the South Australian Cup heats at Globe Derby.

The Charlton based stable will be represented by Perfect Stride (Bettor’s Delight) in the first heat along with Sahara Tiger (Art Major) and Platinum Stride (Captaintreacherous) in the second heat, with the first four horses in each heat qualifying for next weeks $60,000 SA Cup Final.

Sanderson admits he is a relative newcomer to the city of churches.

“I spent one night in Adelaide about 12 months ago and that’s the one and only time I’ve been there,” Sanderson said.

Sanderson said he only recently targeted the SA Cup heats with his team.

“The race only came on the radar about three weeks ago and I decided to take some horses over for it,” he said.

Sanderson was buoyed by the first up effort of stable newcomer Perfect Stride at Melton a fortnight ago when he finished two metres from the winner Ever Hoping.

“He arrived in August and we’ve taken our time with him and it was a promising run first up for us,” he said.

“He shifted back to the inside and hit the line hard finishing not far off the placings.”

Sanderson concedes the Emma Stewart trained Like A Wildfire is the horse to beat in the second heat where Sahara Tiger has to contend with a wide front row draw.

“From the draw Sahar Tiger has a bit of work to do to make the final,” he said.

Conversely Platinum Stride is drawn to get the run of race on the back of the likely leader Like A Wildfire.

“Platinum Stride should be right behind the favorite and he ran a big race at Melton two starts ago,” he said.

“His sectional times have been really good lately, he’s really going well.”

Naturally Sanderson is hoping he has good reason to remain in Adelaide for another week.

“It would be good to get two through to the final and three would be great,” he said.

“Then it will get down to drawing a barrier but they are all good enough to capitalise on a good draw if they get through.”

For complete race entries, click here.

by John Dunne, for Harnesslink