Evangelist aiming for the good mares races

Two mares set to clash later in the season provided very different highlights at Addington on Friday night.

Evangalist (Shadyshark Hanover) and Mr Kaplan (Betterthancheddar) could end up in the best mare’s races later this year or even early in 2025 even though their similarities end there.

Mr Kaplan has been a long time group-race contender and looked every inch a class act with an improbable victory in the best race of the night on Friday.

The second favourite was having her first start back in a new campaign and ended up trapped back on the markers in a farcically run 2600m mobile.

She was still giving the leaders four lengths at the 200m and never seemed likely to win until she swooped late for quite a dynamic victory against the race shape.

Evangalist’s win in the race prior wasn’t quite so pretty on the eye but she recorded better sectionals clawing her way past Lakelsa in a 56.7 second last 800m.

EVANGALIST REPLAY

It was her ninth career win for the now six-year-old daughter of Shadyshark Hanover and co-trainer Jason Thomas says she deserves a crack at the good mares again when the opportunity arises.

“She would have been in the Breeders Stakes (Group 1) last campaign but she missed the lead-up with a minor issue and that meant she didn’t make the field for the big one,” says Thomas, who trains with his father Ian.

“But she has shown on a few occasions she can run with those mares so we’d like to give her her chance.”

And they might as well because Evangalist’s owners only have her on lease from breeders the Grice family so once she stops racing she will return to her breeders for the next phase of her career.

“She has done such a great job, it is not easy to win that many races and hopefully she isn’t finished yet,” says Jason.

The Thomas stable is down to 12 at the moment from recent high of 15-20 and Jason says they are keen to get the numbers back up.

“We are lucky to have some really good owners but it can be hard getting new owners when you have some really big stables which people are keen to have horses with.

“But the door is open and we have a couple of other nice horses so we are going okay.”

Earlier in the night Mr Kaplan’s stablemate Five Crowns defied the betting plunge on his stablemate The Bettor Deal to win the two-year-old race in which the form of the first three should stack up well.

The Bettor Deal was backed from $3.3 on opening into odds-on and led for Mark Purdon but was given little peace over the last 800m by Treasure Cove sitting parked.

The latter was enormous in outstaying The Bettor Deal only to be nabbed by Five Crowns up the passing lane.

Another to watch from Friday night is two-year-old filly Habibti Pat, who beat the older trotters on debut for trainers Greg and Nina Hope.

She is the second foal of former outstanding trotter Habibti Ivy and looks a juvenile set for a very productive second half of the season.

For complete race results, click here.

From Harness Racing New Zealand