Celtic Spirit looks the one to catch

The perfect harness racing draw in the perfect race awaits Celtic Spirit (Sweet Lou) at Addington tonight (Feb. 16).

The Greg and Nine Hope trained pacer will start from barrier 1 in the Charlie Anderson Memorial Free-For-All, which begins from Addington’s much talked about mile starting point.

Horses in inside barrier draws in Addington’s mile races have a big advantage over their rivals with dispatch coming on the home bend.

With Celtic Spirit one of the fastest gate flyers in Canterbury, it would hardly be a shock to see him leading, at least early.

“He would probably only have to come out at half-pace and they wouldn’t be able to cross him,” says driver Ricky May.

“The inside horse just has that much of an advantage, but he is that quick out of the gate too.”

“I will be guided by what Greg and Nina want to do but he does seem to go his best races in front.”

“He should be a pretty good chance either way.”

May combines with another strong winning hope in Aroha Kenny in race 9.

The Phil Williamson trained mare only just missed when second to El Conqueror in her last start at Addington for May.

“I was pretty happy with that run and Phil was rapt with it, too,” May said.

“She seems to be getting back to her best form, I drove her as a two-year-old and she seemed quite smart then.”

“Coming off a handicap won’t be as easy this week, she will need a little bit of luck but you’d think she could go another pretty good race.”

May puts on the familiar Brendon Hill colours in race 6 to combine with Major Hipster.

The pacer has impressed in trials ahead of his return to the races following a decent break.

“I drove him at the workouts at Methven and he felt pretty good,” May said.

“He looked pretty smart in his next trial.”

“He wasn’t a bad horse early on, he just needed a bit of time to strengthen up.”

“He led up in his first start and only just got beat so you would think he would be right in that race.”

May also combines with Whosdreamingnow, Signal Hill, and Refine who each look handy chances as well.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Jonny Turner, for Harness Racing New Zealand