Time to “put him in the deep end”

The horse has shown high level ability through the early part of his harness racing career and now Mach Dan’s owner Danny Zavitsanos says it’s time to “put him in the deep end”.

Zavitsanos said the 2021 Mildura and Horsham Pacing Cup champion had been back in work for about five weeks at trainer Emma Stewart’s property, where he is being readied for some of the key features this year.

“We’re getting him ready for all the big races hopefully, if he’s up to it,” he said.

“We will put him in the deep end this year and see how he goes.”

Zavitsanos said he considered a Queensland campaign with the son of Mach Three, but decided to pull up stumps on a seven-start campaign which returned six wins and a third placing in the Group 1 Australian Pacing Gold 4YO Entires and Geldings Final behind Expensive Ego.

“I thought if I look after the horse then hopefully he will reward us,” Zavitsanos said about the winner of 15 of 26 career runs.

“By all reports, he’s coming back well.

“Every campaign he’s got better and better. I feel he’s just below the really top-liners now, so I feel if he comes back just a little bit better, I think he’ll be right up there.”

October’s Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup is one of the key aims for the horse, with the Inter Dominion Championships “definitely” on the radar “if he’s up to it”.

Code Black is another top Stewart-trained horse owned by Zavitsanos, and he’s also on the comeback trail.

The 2019 Yarra Valley Pacing Cup and Maryborough Gold Cup champ was last seen at the races in December last year when he placed second in the VHRC Caduceus Classic.

Zavitsanos said the son of Bettors Delight had battled a leg injury, but was back following a similar path to stablemate Mach Dan and would potentially tackle some of the big feature races in coming months.

Code Black has won 19 of 83 career starts for more than $350,000 in prizemoney.

By Tim O’Connor for HRV