WA star dominates second day of Australasian Young Drivers Champs

West Australian Emily Suvaljko made the second day of harness racing’s Haras des Trotteurs Australasian Young Drivers Championships her own in Ballarat.

She made a play for the title with a winning double on Wednesday night to move into second place in the series.

New Zealand’s Sam Thornley, who drove a double on the opening night at Melton, continues to lead the championship after four races.

However, Suvaljko has cut his margin to three points going into another two events at Maryborough today (Dec. 8).

Suvaljko set the tone at Bray Raceway with the Rob McCartney-trained Carramar Solomona.

She settled the favourite one-out one-back before setting the three-year-old alight with 500m to run.

Mary Austin (Brendan Barnes) flashed home to get second ahead of Emer (Cam Hart).

Suvaljko, 22, completed the double to secure maximum points for the night with an all-the-way victory on Ghost Of Time for trainer Steve Loftus.

Tayla French was second on Hes A Cool Mach and championship leader Sam Thornley third on Outlaw Man, who backed up from a win at Melton the previous night.

EMILY SUVALJKO INTERVIEW

Suvaljko said she had gone to Ballarat with high hopes given the horses she had drawn were highly favoured.

“They did the job,” she said.

She said she was really enjoying the experience of driving for different trainers and meeting new people, and had no doubt she would have lifetime friends from the time being spent with the other championship participants.

Points standings (after four races): Sam Thornley (NZ) 44, Emily Suvaljko (WA) 41, Brendan Barnes (Queensland) 29, Tayla French (Victoria) 23, Crystal Hackett (NZ) 19, Sarah O’Reilly (NZ) 19, Cam Hart (NSW) 16, Sam Pascoe (SA) 14 and Jordan Chibnall (Tasmania) 12.

The championship will share the stage with the all-maiden Humbletonian program at Maryborough.

The fifth and sixth events in the series are races two and five on the 12-event card.

With just the seven acceptors for the first of them, Tayla French and Sam Pascoe will sit out the event. Each will be awarded five points.

Tasmanian representative Jordan Chibnall looks to have an opportunity to move up the points stable with strong chances on the Phillip Emery-trained Wicked Liquor and Keayang Arizona for Marg Lee.

The championship features nine races, with two at Bendigo on Friday night and one on Inter Dominion grand final night at Melton on Saturday.

For complete Maryborough race entries, click here.

by David Brehaut, for The Trots