Gerken takes two form runners to Winton

Gore trainer Chris Gerken has two runners in the eight race card at Winton on Sunday.

Crackasky (Sky Major) gets a good draw at one, on the front line in Race Three. The four year old mare was solid in running fourth at Gore last Sunday.

“She’s probably taken a bit longer to win a race to be fair. She’s been the best trackworker I’ve ever had. She can stick it with the old fella (Hazer) most days and he’s won thirteen. She just doesn’t know how to win a race at the moment. I keep putting sliding blinds on her and taking them off but she always seems to find one better than her at the moment,” Gerken said.

He added that Sunday’s race looks like a winnable race.

“For sure. Over a mile. She’s got great gate speed and she’ll go forward.”

Crackasky will once again be handled by Kerryn Tomlinson.

Veteran pacer Hazer (Auckland Reactor) fronts up in Race Eight. The ten year old who draws the outside of the second row was seen finishing late last Sunday for an excellent second.

“If he’d got out fifty metres earlier he would have gone very close. He’s probably working as good as he’s ever worked and we just need a bit of luck from the draw.”

Sunday’s race will be Hazer’s one hundredth and thirty eighth.

“Every time we tell him he’s going to retire he puts his foot in the til again. He just loves racing. I went to turn him out after the winter series finished and give him two or three weeks off. After five days he was running around like a three year old and was going to hurt himself so we started back jogging again. He does most of his work on the jogging machine these days and only gets hoppled on race days.”

Ellie Barron will take the reins on Hazer and Gerken says the gelding should be a good chance.

“It’s the same sort of field he’s been racing. He’s won two of his last three starts at Winton so he likes the track. Fingers crossed that we can get a decent run from twelve.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink