Ana Malak derby bound

Ana Malak, owned by Gaby Maghzal, added to the Southern Supremacy puzzle when he impressively won the seventh race at the Invercargill Harness Racing Club's meeting at Ascot Park today.

"He's qualified now and we're going to take a little step up on Saturday and line him up again, just to see where we're at against the better ones. He'll be nominated for the Derby but the Supremacy is his number one aim at this stage," said co-trainer Tony Barron.

The imposing Bettor's Delight colt sat parked for the entire journey taking over the lead when pacemaker Leah Mac broke with broken gear with 600 metres to run.

He went down to the line easily with driver Blair Orange not having to turn the stick. His winning margin was two and a quarter lengths from Mr Woodlea. The time for the 2200 metres was 2-43.3. 

"He's a very laid back colt. He's been in his box sleeping all afternoon. It was never ever going to worry him sitting out there. His work on Saturday was absolutely sensational so we expected a pretty big run. We've looked after him and he hasn't had too many starts. He just keeps developing every start and hopefully he'll continue to do so." 

Ana Malak was driven by stable driver Blair Orange.

Returning to scale                                          – Photo Bruce Stewart.

"He's (Orange) pretty happy and left the ear plug in. He just jogged it really. It was a nice run without having a gut buster for Saturday," said Barron.

Ana Malak is out of the Tinted Cloud mare Anna Livia which was bred by John and Karen Parsons. Anna Livia won nine races for Gaby Maghzal and is a half sister to Artiface which won ten. Anna Livia was trained by Davey and Catherine Butt. 

Barron moved to Canterbury at the start of the 2016 season after training successfully in Southland for most of his career. He's now into his second full season of training with brother Ken. 

"We're ticking over and getting wins every week. Love the move, but love getting back here and catching up with everyone." 

Winning connections with Tony Barron (centre)                  – Photo Bruce Stewart.

Horses already qualified for the $45,000 Group Two Southern Supremacy Stakes on Diamonds Day in April include The  Bus, Kilowatt Kid and Franco Santino.

Maghzal would dearly love to win the Supremacy. His horse Malak Uswaad ran second to Ohoka Texas in 2011

Bruce Stewart

Southland Harness Racing
 

Ana Malak winning today