NZ sales graduate is Interdominion bound

Ollivici (Orlando Vici) continued his rapid rise towards the top of Australia’s trotting ranks with his breakout harness racing victory in the A$30,000 Group Two Aldebaran Park Winter Trotters Cup (2150m) at Bendigo.

The NZB Standardbred graduate booked himself a one-way ticket towards this year’s Interdominions when registering his first victory at stakes level by clearing out from his rivals to score for trainer-driver Chris Lang.

Lang purchased the star trotter for $51,000 from breeder Kevin Chapman who offered him among Aimee Edmonds’ draft at the 2019 Christchurch National Yearling Sale.

The Victorian trainer has three Interdominion trotting titles to his name and thinks he has a shot at a fourth with Ollivici.

With just 14 starts to date, the four-year-old has a massive future and that is exactly where Lang is looking as he targets the Interdominions.

“We’ll be wanting to target the Inter Dominion this year because he’s going well,” Lang said.

“He mightn’t be good enough to win it this year, but it’s a very good grounding for him for further down the track.”

Ollivici showed excellent early speed to lead the Winter Trotters Cup throughout, speeding away in fast closing sectionals to score. The black type victory was the horse’s third win in just three starts this campaign.

OLLIVICI REPLAY

Lang kept an interest in the trotter after his purchase out of the NZB Standardbred sale ring while syndicating the remaining shares among a group of eight fellow owners.

Among them is Mark Shaw who was delighted with his horse’s Group Two victory.

“I can’t believe it, I’m still shaking,” Shaw said after Ollivici’s win.

“I’ve known Chris for over 30 years, we’ve had some excellent horses but I think this will be the best.”

Shaw inspected Ollivici at NZB Standardbred’s National Yearling Sale in 2019 and was impressed with what he saw.

“I didn’t see him until I got there and I looked at a lot of horses and I was looking high-end. He was the one I liked the most, the kiwis do breed good trotters.”

“When I saw him I fell in love with him – the white blaze and I thought, ‘oh mate he’s a bit pretty for a guy like me, but he makes me look good’.

“I looked at him and couldn’t fault him. I’m hoping there’s going to be nothing to fault in the years to come either,” he said.

As he progresses towards the Interdominions in November, Ollivici has more feature race assignments to target and including at Melton early next month.

from NZB Standardbred