Breed For Speed champ Cold Sister returns in the Lightfoot Laurels at Tabcorp Park tonight
Lady Penrose will be out to make it three straight wins when she goes around in tonight’s SEW-Eurodrive Winter Championship Final at Melton’s Tabcorp Park.
The five-year-old Badlands Hanover mare punched the breeze last time out in her Winter Championship heat before scoring a tough head win over Christian World.
It was her second win in a row at Melton, having reeled off a super-quick mile-rate of 1:55.8 to triumph in the C4 or better event a week prior.
Despite successive wins aboard the mare, champion driver Gavin Lang tonight hops out of the spider and will be replaced by Rodney Petroff.
Lang will instead steer Lady Penrose’s stablemate, Guns N Roses.
Both trained by Adam Kelly at Coimadai, Guns N Roses also takes strong form into Friday night’s $25,000 feature over 2240m.
The son of D M Dilinger was freshened up prior to last Friday’s second placing in the first heat of the Winter Championship.
Guns N Roses came out running on that occasion and soon found the spot outside the leader before falling by 1.2m to Saint Flash, who worked home strongly down the outside.
A Glenn Douglas-trained gelding, a son of Grinfromeartoear, Saint Flash has been racing in super-consistent form this time in, with six wins and eight minor placings from 19 starts since his last spell.
From barrier six, Saint Flash is expected to steady early, with top reinsman Daryl Douglas hoping to slot the gelding in somewhere before unleashing a powerful finishing burst.
Like Kelly, Douglas also has two runners in the Winter Championship Final.
Sunrose Don is a five-year-old gelding, who hasn’t won since March at Mildura.
However, his fourth placing last time out behind Lady Penrose showed he might be working his way back to his best.
He showed gate speed to lead from barrier two, but will find this considerably tougher from an outside-second-row draw.
Melton trainer-driver Lance Justice will also gear up two runners in the race, with first emergency Mark Dennis gaining a start after the scratching of Christian World, and last-start heat-two winner Because I Can drawn outside the front for Justice and driver Leigh Sutton.
Meanwhile, prolific winner Cullen Bromac (drawn inside the second row for trainer Keith Cotchin and driver Craig Demmler), and Rodrigo (drawn 10 for trainer Tim Bolitho and driver Michael Bellman) are also tipped to play huge roles in the race.
On a huge night of harness racing at Melton, the Group 3 Harness Breeders Vic Lightfoot Laurels will also be contested.
Amelia Darling will be one of the horses to beat for trotting-king Chris Lang of Nagambie.
The five-year-old mare, a daughter of Kadabra, has won two of her past three starts.
Three runs back she sat behind the leader at Melton before finishing hard for a 1.5m win over Lucky Twenty Three, while last time out she bolted in at Maryborough in the Alabar Matchmaker Mile by 12.2m.
Amelia Darling has drawn five in the 2760m stand-start race and will start on the outside of another up-and-comer in Miss Southern Land.
Fourth last time out at Maryborough behind Stoned I Am, Miss Southern Land is a winner of six of 17 career starts.
Trained at Daylesford by Michael Barby and driven by Rodney Petroff, the daughter of Continentalman boasts five wins from nine stand-start attempts.
In-form Our Dolly Would, Jingling Silver and Prettylilangeleyes will also play a big part in the Laurels, while Cold Sister is a consistent mare who’s first-up from a spell in the race for David Aiken and Scott Dyer.
And racegoers will be excited to see up-and-coming star Caribbean Blaster return from a freshen-up in the Schweppes Our Maestro Free For All over 2240m.
The Andy Gath-trained and Kate Gath-driven winner of the Chariots in Menangle earlier this year finished second last time out in the Italian Cup, beaten 4.2m by Jaccka Clive.
A winner of 14 of 44 starts, the son of Bettors Delight has drawn four for tomorrow’s $20,000 fast-class race.
One of the biggest dangers in the race will be Aiken-trained, Dyer-driven Mapua Legend, who finished sixth behind Caribbean Blaster when the pair last met in June.
Since that race, the five-year-old Mapua Legend has won three out of four races, including back-to-back triumphs at Melton.
He’ll be fit as a fiddle here and is drawn well in three.
Last-start victor Tear It All Away will also have his fair share of supporters, the Geoff Webster-trained, Emmett Brosnan-driven seven-year-old coming off an impressive 4.1m triumph over Mister Douglas and Dominus Vobiscum last Friday at Melton.
Meanwhile, veteran pacer Ti Vogliobene has been knocking on the door in recent starts and could get his chance at odds here.
The Greg Norman-trained nine-year-old has finished fourth at two of his last three runs, all at Melton, with an eye-catching third behind Jaccka Clive splitting those performances.
With Chris Alford in the sulky, the son of Village Jasper is some chance to register his first win since March at Globe Derby in Adelaide.
The action kicks off at Melton tomorrow from 6.42pm with the Tabcorp Park Melton Claiming Pace opening the program.
