All the travelling well worth it

Harness racing junior driver Craig Ferguson is certainly wracking up the miles this season with frequent trips from his Southland base to race meetings in the Canterbury region.

Tonight at Addington Raceway Craig only had one drive for the whole program but he made it count with a textbook drive on the free going Art Major mare Perissa in the junior drivers event.

Grabbing the lead early, Craig held Perissa back to the field with a couple of soft quarters before sending her for home at the 900 metres in a race winning move.

Sprinting home her last 800 metres in a brilliant 54.3 and 400 metres in 26.2 meant Perissa coasted home a comfortable winner.

" When I was talking to Mark (Jones) earlier in the week, he said Perissa was ready to go and would go a good race but that was pretty impressive."

" The plan was to apply the pressure a fair way out and she has done it rather easily to be honest," Craig said.

This is the last year for Craig as a junior driver and he is making every effort this season to go a couple better than last season when he finished third on the junior drivers premiership.

" I would love to win the junior drivers premiership but it is really hard to achieve from Southland with only one meeting most weeks so I am travelling up to Canterbury as much as possible, even if it is only for one drive."

" The travelling is not to bad when you drive a winner but it can be a long drive home when you run last," Craig said.

Craig has not been going home empty handed very often from his trips to Canterbury with his last visit to Canterbury a fortnight ago for two drives resulted in him landing a winner at odds with Shillelagh in the junior drivers race.

"It has been going really good lately and I just hope the success leads to some more opportunities up here in the future."

"I don't mind coming up from Southland for just one drive as you never know where it might lead," Craig said.

You can't fault the work ethic or commitment that Craig is showing with all his travelling and lets hope it is for more than just one drive a meeting in the future.

Harnesslink Media