Canterbury trotters dominate $65,000 and $90,000 features

Canterbury harness racing trotters have dominated the features tonight at Alexandra Park.

Run in atrocious conditions, future trotting star Masterly (Love You) ploughed through the slush to dominate a handy field of 3YO trotters in the (Gr2) $64,400 Lone Star NZ Sires Stakes Trotters Championship.

Trained by Paul Nairn, Masterly and driver Bob Butt blasted to the lead early and bolted clear to win by six lengths in a race full of drama, after hot favourite Highgrove made a mistake at the start and ended up finishing a long last.

“He has got plenty of talent this fella and he loved the Auckland way of going tonight,” driver Bob Butt said after the race.

“He is a bit untapped against these good 3YO’s, he has just been racing his against his own class.”

“It was a shame Highgrove galloped, it would have been good to see how he measured up against him, hopefully this fella is not far away from him,” he said.

MASTERLY REPLAY

Champion trotter Sundees Son was again too classy for his arch rival Bolt For Brilliance in the (Gr1) $89,500 H R Frisken & Sons Anzac Cup.

Although the margin was only half a neck, Sundees Son (Majestic Son) showed his usual grit fighting like a tiger for driver John Dunn, when Bolt For Brilliance came up along side him near the line.

There was a gap of seven lengths back to Midnight Dash in third. The race was run in a sedate 2-05 mile rate but the last 800m was run in a slick 56.7 seconds.

SUNDEES SON REPLAY

For complete race results, click here.

by Harnesslink Media