Waikato stables poised for strong night

Arna Donnelly looks set to lead what should be a good night for Waikato harness racing stables at Alexandra Park tonight.

Donnelly’s New Zealand Cup dreams may be over for this year but the majority of her team are racing well and several find themselves in the right races tonight.

She starts the night with the very promising filly Opa’s Girl taking on a mixture of fellow juveniles and older horses over 2200m but the way she boomed home from well back to win over 1700m last start she can win again.

Donnelly has two juveniles in Race 3 including debutante Nazare who has won his last three workouts and looks perfectly drawn at barrier two in the five-horse field.

His sectionals have suggested he can step straight into race night company without needing to improve much and he was opened just a $1.80 favourite, with the Cambridge trainer’s other rep Ultimate Lad a $31 chance.

For a small field though there are a few moving parts to this one, with all three of their rivals having shown enough to upset the odds-on favourite without surprising.

Donnelly has the much-improved Final Change in a very even Race 5 but while the three-year-old raced below his best last start his earlier form was very strong in tougher races than what he finds himself in tonight.

While $2.80 favourite Words will be hard to catch if she leads any pressure would bring Final Change into the race late.

Donnelly rounds out her night with the free-going Dragonstone in the main trot and while off 10m over 2200m if she steps as quickly as she can she could still have a shot at leading and being hard to catch.

He will be driven by David Butcher who not only had winning chances with Hooray Henry and You Little Beauty in tonight’s main pace but also a strong book of drives.

Butcher pilots talented little trotting mare Miss Bebe who returns in Race 4 and while she should improve with tonight’s race having only had one workout to prepare, she will be a winner before long.

Her trainer Rodney Frampton lines up a very promising filly in Soul Artist in the last race on the card.

The well-bred daughter of Art Major has won three of her four public outing and the only time she has been beaten was by a subsequent multiple race winner in Tytate back in March.

So between Donnelly, Butcher, Frampton and a few others the Waikato looks set to be in for a good night north of the Bombays.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand