First driving win for Balle

Junior driver Neita Balle grabbed her first harness racing win in the sulky tonight (Sep. 1) at Alexandra Park, behind the Ross Paynter trained Lilliburlero (Auckland Reactor).

A confident Balle drove a great race on Lilliburlero, who was driven to the lead early before receiving a perfect run in the trail behind the race favourite Manny and driver Crystal Hackett.

In the straight Balle and Lilliburlero drove up the passing lane going on to record an easy win.

“I was quite confident tonight,” an ecstatic Neita Balle said after the race.

“It was a nice even field and she had been going good races before, so I can’t thank Ross Paynter enough for putting me on,” she said.

Lilliburlero won by a length from Manny, with Benjamin Button and Taitlyn Hanara running home well for third.

LILLIBURLERO REPLAY

Lilliburlero was not wanted by the betting public paying around $6.50 to win on fixed odds.

Leading Northern driver Zachary Butcher had a big night in the sulky with driving wins behind the Barry Purdon/Scott Phelan trio of Advance Party (Bettor’s Delight), Montana D J (Captaintreacherous) and Merlin (Art Major).

Advance Party was massive winning her debut run in a record 1:53.9 mile rate over the 1700m, beating the hot favourite Kahlua Flybye by a neck at the line.

“I thought around the bend I was going to have trouble picking those other two up as they are nice fillies, but as soon as I pulled her out and pushed the go button she went swoosh,” Butcher said after the race.

“She has got a pretty bright future,” he said.

ADVANCE PARTY REPLAY

Zachary Butcher also won the higher rated pacers feature with Old Town Road (Bettor’s Delight), who zipped home in 54.9 seconds for his last 800m.

OLD TOWN ROAD REPLAY

Merlin kept his unbeaten record intact with a sizzling late dash, running his last 800m in better than 54 seconds to record his fifth win from five starts.

MERLIN REPLAY

For complete race results click here.

by Harnesslink Media