Exciting Kiwi set to make Australian debut

Harness racing’s Andy Gath is a persistent man and doesn’t give up easily when he finds a horse he likes.

So it’s no surprise that the Long Forest-based trainer eventually secured the purchase of talented New Zealander Tango Tara, who will step out for his debut Australian run this Saturday night at Tabcorp Park Melton.

Gath’s long-time associate Norm Jenkin now has ownership of a five-year-old destined to join fast class company in coming starts.

He will kick off his campaign in the Allied Express Pace (1720m) for the 70-79 rated horses and looks hard to beat after drawing well in barrier one.

Gath’s wife Kate will drive the son of A Rocknroll Dance on Saturday night and holds a strong element of confidence that he can start his Australian career in style.

“He’s a quality horse and his runs over there (in New Zealand) were outstanding,” she told Trots Talk.

“A lot of his runs were in stands, but we trialled him on Monday night at Geelong from the mobile. He’s a pretty laid-back horse, but when he got behind the gate, he got pretty keen and ran the gate quite well.

“So I expect him to have pretty useful gate speed, and if he has that like I think, then I think he’ll just be winning.”

Tango Tara was purchased from Russell Nieper, who Andy had previously bought horses from. The best of those was the highly-talented Maximan, who won 27 races and close to $400,000 in prizemoney.

Tango Tara has had 32 starts in New Zealand for just the six wins, but has strong form around some of the country’s best pacers. He arrives in Australia on the back of a last-start effort behind Self Assured and Spankem when he was beaten less than 12m, and even competed in the time-honoured New Zealand Trotting Cup during 2020.

“We were lucky to get him, actually. Andy knows the owner quite well and we’ve bought a couple of the owner’s horses previously. Luckily for Andy, he had first option to buy him when he came on the market,” Kate said.

“We were really quick to snap him up and he’s a horse that I think a lot of people would have wanted. He’s only won six races in New Zealand, so he comes over here pretty lightly rated in the national ratings system for the horses that he was racing there. We are hoping that he will do the job that we think he can.”

Despite looking well placed, Tango Tara faces some quality opposition from last-start Wagga Pacers Cup winner Jemsoms Pet (Craig Turnbull) and Sahara Sirocco (Gary and Debbie Quinlan), who returns to the races following a third placing in the Group 1 Vicbred Super Series 3YO Colts and Geldings Final on December 31.

Saturday night’s nine-race card kicks off from 5.03pm, with the last to go at 9pm.

The headline event on the card is the Group 3 Niota Bloodstock I Didnt Do It Trotters Free For All (2240m), where Brad Angove-trained veteran Sundons Courage makes his return from a spell.

By Tim O’Connor for HRV