The Douglas stable is hoping for a strong finish to another solid season
Glenn Douglas might have his maiden Metropolitan Trainers’ Premiership all parcelled up, but the prolific Bendigo horseman is keen to gear up at least one winner at tomorrow night’s final city-class meeting of the season at Melton’s Tabcorp Park.
Douglas has trained 149 winners for the racing year and would dearly love to achieve the goal the stable set itself at the start of the season on Victorian harness racing’s biggest stage.
“You’ve got to set yourself goals every year and that’s what we like to do here; set ourselves a little goal that we think we can get to and 150 was a target we were hoping we could get to this year,” Douglas said.
“So hopefully we can add something to it tomorrow night. There are more than a couple of horses there with good chances so hopefully we can finish the way we started and make it a really good year.”
Douglas is a good chance to do that with runners in six of the nine races, including Mister Orion in the opener, Lights And Music in the $20,000 Metro Printing The Graduate and Jackson Grant in the Claimer (which doesn’t count towards the metro premiership as it is worth less than $15,000).
“Lights And Music, his form leading into it is very good and this is a step up in class but I think he’s capable of it,” Douglas said.
“Mister Orion, I thought his run the other week was very good and hopefully he can continue that good form and even old Jackson Grant in the Claimer, he’s going great guns and hopefully he continues his good form too.”
Victory by Lights And Music or Mister Orion – or Douglas’s other runners Shortys Star (Race 2), Jukebox Music and Fire It Up (Race 5), Our Hillview Gold and Stirling Charmer (Race 7) – would add to his already impressive haul of 27 city winners for the season.
That’s six more than the man who has dominated this award the past four seasons, Lance Justice, who has runners in just three races on the night, and while Douglas said the metro premiership wasn’t a goal it was good to win given he’s come so close in the past.
“Lance has beaten me the last few years in the metro premiership, but I’ve always been in the top five in that time, so it’s nice to finally win one myself,” Douglas said.
While Douglas will add a maiden metro trainers’ title to what will be a fourth straight Victorian Trainers’ Premiership, Chris Alford will collect another Metropolitan Drivers’ Premiership.
The champion Bolinda reinsman, who won a string of Moonee Valley premierships during the 1990s, will secure his first metro title since 2006/07.
Like Douglas, Alford, 41 winners, also holds a six-win lead over his nearest rival, Douglas’s brother Daryl, with Gavin Lang – winner of the past three premierships – one win further back.
Alford has drives in six of the seven metro-class races tomorrow night, including Night Of The Stars in The Graduate and Flylika Bird Lombo in the $20,000 Harness Breeders Vic 3YO Classic for fillies.
