Talented two year old to make debut

The middle of winter is not usually the place to launch a talented horse on his harness racing career but such is the case tonight with the debut run of the smart two year old Franco Cristiano in race one at Addington.

This great looking son of Bettor's Delight was purchased out of last years New Zealand Premier sale for $92,500 after Robert Dunn saw the sales video of the colt from the Spreydon Lodge draft.

" As soon as I saw the video, where he looked a quality horse, I went and inspected him and was really impressed and ended up buying him," Robert told Harnesslink today

Not only is Franco Cristaino a good looker but he has the pedigree to go with it.

Franco Cristiano is from a daughter of the outstanding broodmare Cherubic who left eight winners and all were black print winners and her daughters have bred on as well.

It has not been all plain sailing since his purchase at the sales.

" He was quite hard to get going actually."

"Gavin (Burgess) who breaks all of mine in had a lot of problems getting him to pace and we had to pull his hopples right up to get him to function."

"When he came back into the stable he was better, but he just didn't have any confidence so we took our time with him."

"We qualified him and gave him another wee break and he has come back in  this time like the horse we always thought he could be."

" He is not foolproof yet but he is getting there."

" He is a horse that feels like he has a lot of bottom to him and he should develop into a really smart three and four year old," Robert said.

With John in Auckland driving the northern team tonight at Alexandra Park, the plum drive on Franco Cristiano has fallen to stable reinsman Sam Ottley and going by his recent trial at Rangiora he should make his debut a winning one tonight at Addington.

Harnesslink Media