Da Vinci brushes aside opposition

A wet track today at Wyndham didn’t blunt Da Vinci’s (Art Major) sharp speed and his harness racing win in the $25,000 Hunter Family Handicap was a great result for the locals.

The talented pacer was bred and is raced by Paul and Brendon Duffy who farm in the area and he’s trained on the Wyndham track by Craig Ferguson.

“Hunters and Duffys are locals so they all would have grown up together at different stages and it was on the local track so it’s always nice winning here,” Craig Ferguson said.

Ferguson had a three prong attack on the race with Cormac Leo (Sweet Lou) finishing fourth and Nutcracker (Bettor’s Delight) eighth.

“Da Vinci and Cormac Leo went well, and Nutcracker was disappointing. She’s only a wee dot and it was pretty sticky out there, it probably didn’t suit her.”

Becoming one of the rising pacing stars in Southland Da Vinci was driven perfectly by Nathan Williamson. The win is his tenth from just twenty three starts.

“Since Christmas he’s really turned on. Hopefully we can sneak a wee break into him and he’ll come back even better again.”

The next Country Cups race is the $25,000 Winton Cup at the Central Southland Raceway on Saturday 13^th April but Ferguson says Da Vinci is likely to go straight into the $40,000 Regent Car Court Southern Country Cups Final on Diamonds Day at Ascot Park on Sunday April 21^st.

“He’s well and truly qualified for that so we’ll have a crack.”

He says Da Vinci’s beginning to master the standing starts.

“He’s been lucky because he’s been on the back mark by himself so he’s not pressured by others and looking for room.”

Meanwhile the Ferguson trained Wag Star (Sweet Lou) will head to the workouts again tomorrow before he resumes. The talented pacer proved to be a difficult drive at last weekend’s workouts.

“He was trying to pull up and was goofing around. We normally have blinds on him. Come race day they’ll probably go back on. He’s back at the workouts then we’ll qualify him from the stand and there’s a race at Winton for him.”

Ferguson’s star trotter Smokin Bandar won’t be seen for a while.

“He had a slight suspensory issue so we turned him out. It’s nothing major but we’ll give him a wee bit of time, so he comes back 100%. We won’t see him until after the winter.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink