King Of Strathfield qualifies for Great Southern Star

King Of Strathfield will get the chance to take on horses like I Can Doosit in next March's inaugural Great Southern Star.

Underrated Queensland squaregaiter King Of Strathfield has become the sixth horse to qualify for March’s inaugural Great Southern Star by claiming the Seelite Windows and Doors Darrell Alexander Memorial Trot final at Gold Coast on Saturday night.

A half brother to both New Zealand Trotters Derby and Breeders Crown winner Galleons Assassin and brilliant international campaigner Thedonsson, King Of Strathfield was a metropolitan maiden approaching the Group 2 race at Parklands Drive.

But now he will have the opportunity to take on some of Australasia’s greatest squaregaiters in Harness Racing Victoria’s showpiece squaregaiting feature.

Other horses to make it through to the Great Southern Star are I Can Doosit, Charlemagne, Cold Sister, Elegant Image and Brief Glance, while the series next invitees will come from November’s New Zealand Trotting FFA and Hellers Dominion.

The focus will then shift back to Victoria with the Bill Collins Trotters Mile and Dullard Cup also offering ballot exemptions to the winner of each race.

An Elitlopp-style series where heats and final will be raced on the same Tabcorp Park programme on March 23, 2013, the Great Southern Star will carry $350,000 in stakemoney in its terminal season.

The exciting new concept suffered a minor setback late last month when North American squaregaiter Imperial Count was withdrawn from the series after going amiss at his last local run.

However no stone is being left unturned in pursuit of an elite northern hemisphere contestant with provisions already already in place for up to two international invitees at the discretion of HRV.

For a full list of qualification races and criteria just visit the recently launched website dedicated to the series, www.greatsouthernstar.com.au/gss/ and follow the links.

And to keep up to date with all the latest breaking news on The Great Southern Star follow @hrvnews on Twitter and hashtag all of your tweets #greatsouthernstar to join the conversation surrounding Australasia’s greatest new squaregaiting race.