David Thorn.
Former New Zealand pacer Vi Et Animo will have its first start for Menangle Park trainer David Thorn on Saturday night at Tabcorp Park. The son of Pacific Rocket has won nearly $250,000 in his career and arrives in Australia as a lightly assessed M3 pacer.
“Vi Et Animo is a really well performed horse in New Zealand and arrives relatively lowly graded considering the races he has won over there,” Thorn said.
“He has only been with me for a month and I haven’t taken him to the trials but then again I don’t trial many horses anyway. He doesn’t take much work and while I think he will improve after the run on Saturday night, I don’t think he is too far off his peak.”
Thorn is keen to talk to his New Zealand connections about his short term future because if he performs well this weekend then he may target the Renshaw Cup at Penrith.
“I will speak with the owners about it but if they are happy that he would handle Penrith then I would like to take him to the Renshaw Cup because it would be great to get a line on him here against some of the better horses in Sydney.”
“From the people I have spoken to in New Zealand they tell me while he is about a length off the very good ones over there, with the right run he can be competitive in any race he is in so if everything goes to plan and he goes as well as I expect him to then there is no reason why I wouldn’t consider aiming him at the Winter Cup in Queensland later in the year.”
Stablemate and talented mare Vertigal is expected to be back in work later this week after spending a short time in the paddock because of a virus.
“I was unhappy with the way she was racing since a spell and we discovered she had a low grade virus so she was sent for a short break and the lady who is looking after her rang me to say they had to drain a hoof abscess in the last week too so that might have been why she was below her best and while time is against us hopefully I can get her ready for the Carousel heats.”
Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 31 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.
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