Squaregaiting Queen all set for Great Southern Star fine-tune

Squaregaiting harness racing star Queen Elida (Love You) will use Saturday night’s Group 3 Woodlands Stud V L Dullard Trotters Cup as a dress rehearsal for next week’s Yabby Dam Farms Great Southern Star.

The winner of close to a million dollars finished second in the Group 1 Aldebaran Park Maori Mile on Bendigo Cup night.

“She was parked outside the leader for most of the race and went great,” Trainer Brent Lilley said.

The Bolinda trainer tossed up a giving the squaregaiter a run-in last week’s Knight Pistol but decided against it to give the mare a break.

“She has come through her Bendigo run in fine fashion,” he said. “Whether it was this week or last week. I was always going to give her one last run before the Great Southern Star.

“I thought the run the week before would be more beneficial for her, it would be better to give her the run a week before rather than two weeks before.

“So, I opted to wait for this week – she is in great order, and I couldn’t be happier.”

The six-year-old has competed in the previous two edition of the trotting feature and has failed to place in the final on both occasions.

Lilley, 48, expects maturity and experience to come to the fore this time round.

“She has had a couple of goes at it before and I am more confident that more age on her – she will be more then competitive in the way that she is going,” he said.

The mare out of Queen Kenny had a moderate Inter Dominion campaign finishing fifth in the final after winning the opening two heats.

 “After the Inter Dominion, the Great Southern Star was the next big offer, it was always the plan to target the race,” he said.

Queen Elida has drawn 12 for the $30,000 trotting feature with regular master driver, Chris Alford to steer.

The Group 3 Woodlands Stud V L Dullard Trotters Cup is set to go at 8.03pm.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Lachlan Mitchell, for Harness Racing Victoria