Steno gets dream draw in Gr3 The Schrader

“It’s not going to be a walk in the park, but it’s definitely drawn to our favour.”

Steno (Sweet Lou) has the harness racing draw to suit this Friday night in the $50,000 The Schrader for the fillies and mares over the 2130m trip, and Jocelyn Young is confident the five-year-old will be hard to beat from barrier one.

“She’s got great gate speed, and she really should be leading and being very hard to beat.

“I think she’s obviously going to be on the rail, I can’t really see anything testing her too much early, and I just think realistically she should be too good from there.

“If she’s out in front and anywhere near right, she’s just so fast, she’s going to be hard to catch.”

Second up this preparation after heading to the paddock in April, Steno made her return on October 4, finishing in fourth placing in the FFA Mares race at Gloucester Park behind impressive mare Aardiebytheseaside NZ.

“I’m probably hard on her, it was a good run considering she hasn’t had a run for 24 weeks, which is a long time to go, and she only had the one trial, and she only worked with another horse once before that, so she did take a lot out of that.

“And I knew she would only get better from that.”

Having around seven weeks in the paddock whilst Jocelyn was on holiday in Canada, the plan was to bring her back in time for the big mares’ races in November, with the $100,000 Gr2 Norms Daughter Classic programmed for WA Pacing Cup night, Friday November 8.

“She’s definitely really come on from the first up run, and being able to give her a couple of track runs with other horses, so that’s really benefited her.

“From last prep, I did find it took a couple of race runs to get her where she needed to be, so I expect that even after Friday, there should be more improvement.”

Aardiebbytheseaside NZ, who is undefeated since making her debut in WA on April 19, has gone seven from seven including the Gr3 $75,000 Empress Stakes at her first start, coming out on top over Steno with a 3m margin in an impressive 1:54:6 over the 2536m trip around Gloucester Park.

This is just the third time the mares have met in races, but Aardiebytheseaside NZ will have to overcome the bad barrier draw, with the star mare drawing barrier nine this week for the Bond stable.

For complete race entries, click here

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA