First NZ starter for Lazarus at Alexandra Park

Tomorrow night at Alexandra Park, see’s the first New Zealand starter for the progeny of dual hemisphere shuttle stallion and champion Kiwi harness racing pacer, Lazarus.

It’s been a long time coming for his legion of home town fans for arguably the best pacer produced on these shores since the great Christian Cullen, with a tiny crop of just 18 live foals produced in his first crop not helping the timeline.

Three of that crop have qualified in the early part of the New Zealand juvenile racing season, with tomorrow night putting the spotlight on a sire doing great things already in North America and Australia.

Lining up in the vaunted colours of Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan is the promising type, Jeremiah. The two-year-old colt has looked impressive in his two public appearances, winning the most recent of them at Franklin in slick time.

Jeremiah was an $80,000 yearling sales purchase out of the Gael Murray draft in Christchurch, and after a rough start to his early education, has figured out the fact he is bred to be a better-than-average pacer.

“He had a lovely head on him, and he looked a little bit classy, so we thought we would have a go at him,” said Purdon.

“He took a bit longer than the other couple we bought from the sales to come to it, but he has really turned the corner recently and has impressed us a lot recently. He didn’t have the hopples on him at one stage. We actually had him trotting,” he laughed. “We let him do his own thing there for a while and started again.

“He just went ahead in leaps and bounds. Scott (Phelan) always liked him, he’s done all the work with him and told me he goes quite nice. He has only had a couple of trials and has won both quite nicely and looked quite strong at the end of them,” he said.

JEREMIAH BARRIER TRIAL

Jeremiah’s dam is the ten-win Live Or Die mare, Flyover. She was Group One placed in the NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes behind Adore Me and had 31 placings to her name in a tidy career on the track. She has produced three winners from her first four foals of racing age, including the talented Better Fly (5 wins) and Jordy (4 wins).

With tomorrow night’s juvenile race programmed failing to get off the ground due to insufficient entries, Jeremiah finds himself contesting a 2YO and older field of maidens that looks within his range in his first look at ‘the ribbon of light’.

“I think he will definitely be right in the finish with the right run. Obviously, his first run at Alexandra Park will all be new for him, and the thing with a lot of the maidens is a few of them have had a bit of practice. He’s in good shape, and I would like to think that he will figure in the finish, that’s for sure.

“He’s the only Lazarus we have had at this stage. He’s got a lovely attitude and way of going and is headed in the right direction,” he said.

Jeremiah is rated a $2 fixed odd’s favourite to make his debut a winning one.

For complete Alexandra Park race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink