Smokin Bandar’s trip to Aussie confirmed

After winning impressively at Addington tonight trotter Smokin Bandar (Monkey Bones) is off to Australia for a four race harness racing campaign. 

Owned by Tom and Julie Kilkelly with Holly and Shea McKenzie, tonight’s win was the gelding’s tenth, and is the sixth time he’s won at Addington for Wyndham trainer Craig Ferguson. 

“We brought him up here early in his career for the mobiles because he was tricky from the stand. He gets round the track well and enjoys the trip away, much like me (laughter),” Ferguson said. 

Tonight was the first time stable junior driver Max Hill has driven the horse on race night. 

“Ten out of ten drive. It was a good patient drive for a young fella on a $1.40 favourite. He could have gone mad early, but he stayed out of it.” 

SMOKIN BANDAR REPLAY

The winning margin at the end of the 1980 metre trip was two and a half lengths, with the last 800 metres run in 56.8 seconds. 

“Max never pulled the plugs, didn’t turn the stick and the horse did it under his own steam and did it nicely.” 

The win further enhanced Smokin Bandar’s great fresh up record. 

“He’s not an overly big horse and he doesn’t take too much to get fit.” 

Ferguson expected the grey to run well despite having been away from racing since November last year. 

“With his work a home I thought he was back to his best but there’s always that raceday doubt.” 

It’s noticeable that Smokin Bandar has become a bit lighter in colour with age. 

“They say when greys get a bit older they turn a bit whiter. He’s looking pretty showy, and he’s got a lot of fans here.” 

He says the horse has also matured. 

“I used to put trotting boots on behind because he’d refuse to trot wearing bandages, just because it was something around his legs. There were weird little things but this time in he’s taken those sorts of things in his stride.” 

The horse is booked to travel to Auckland before flying out to Australia for a four race campaign at Albion Park as part of the Queensland Constellations. 

“Mark Hurrell actually pointed the option out to me. He does most of our horse’s programming – he’s mad on that. We got forced to give this fellow a spell last time because of a slight injury (after the Dominion Handicap). He was ready to come back but at this time of year there’s not a lot of races for him. For a start we thought that would be pretty cool but as he’s progressed this preparation, we started to think it could be a realistic aim.”  

Ferguson says Smokin Bandar will land in Sydney on the 11th of June with his first race at Albion Park on the 23rd. 

“There are four races for him, starting with a couple of heats and a $60,000 final. He’ll then miss a week, then race in a $100,000 Group One. He’s going to Jack Trainor’s at Menangle. Jack is taking six to the carnival. Jack and I will cruise up at some stage and give the horse a couple of days to settle in.” 

Ferguson says he’ll be driving the gelding in his races and will be the first time he’s driven outside of New Zealand. 

“It’ll be really cool going over there, taking on some of Australia’s best trotters. We’ll see where we fit in. What may help us is a lot of the horses up there have been racing a long time. Most horses at this time of year are winding up their campaigns whereas we’re kicking off.” 

This will be Ferguson’s first trip out of the country for quite a while. 

“Jack Trainor and I actually went to the Gold Coast eleven years ago so here we go again.” 

Ferguson says after the Queensland campaign the horse will return home and be freshened. They’ll then target the Dominion Handicap. 

Smokin Bandar was named by Julie Kilkelly. Being by Monkey Bones, the Bandar part of his name derives from the Hindi name for Monkey while the smokin is more obvious as his dam is The Fiery Filly. 

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink