Claudys Princess in full flight.
Friday night's trots spotlight will be on Shepparton in north-east Victoria for the Shepparton Club Inc. Trotters Cup.
A 10-race card gets under way at 6pm with the feature event scheduled for 9pm, a $16,505 discretionary handicap over 2690 metres from a standing start.
Local mare Claudys Princess, a winner of 15 of her 22 starts and a four-time Group 1 victor, will start from the front line in barrier three.
Driven by Gavin Lang and trained by Mick Blackmore, the former two-year-old Vicbred Final winner went back-to-back in that series at three but was unfortunately scratched from the Breeders Crown owing to an injury. She also finished second in the Victoria Derby.
As a four-year-old Claudys Princess has had four starts for two wins and two seconds, her best performance coming last time out on Great Southern Star night in the Breed for Speed Gold Final.
The Bacardi Lindy mare out of All Finesse sat parked outside Duchess Ella (a 1:57.2MR winner at Menangle in January) and proved 2.9 metres too good over 1720m in a rate of 1:58.7.
The third horse in the Gold Final, Death Defying, went on to upstage the boys at Melton next time out, franking Claudys Princess' form line.
“We had a decision to make, the Shepparton Cup or the following week there was a heat for TM0-TM1 to go into a $30,000 final and we decided to go to Shepparton,” said owner Gus Underwood, a local trots man who writes columns for the sport in the Shepparton News.
“It would be nice to win our hometown Cup.”
Claudys Princess was invited to contest the Harness Jewels last year in New Zealand, but connections elected to stay in Victoria and contest the three-year-old trotting classics.
“It just wasn’t feasible last year unfortunately,” Underwood said.
“This year we’d definitely look at it if the opportunity presented itself.”
No announcement on an Aussie invite has been made yet regarding four-year-old trotting fillies.
Meanwhile, last weekend’s Coulter Crown (Group 3) winner The Boss Man is backing up for David Aiken and Scott Dyer in the Shepparton feature.
Driven a treat by Dyer at Melton, The Boss Man captured the Crown after holding off fast-finishing Action Kosmos.
The Boss Man will give Claudys Princess 10m, starting alongside fellow backmarkers Quite A Moment from the Ross Sugars camp and Xanderxav for trainer Linton Power on Friday night.
Action Kosmos will begin from outside the draw on the front line, the Geoff Webster-trained son of Sierra Kosmos having run two cracking seconds since returning from a freshen-up.
The other runners in the race are Dean Braun-trained pair Unico Pegasus from the pole, with Alex Ashwood in the sulky, and 2014 Winter Trotters Cup Final winner Our Dreamlover from barrier five for Nathan Jack, Bellmac Kody for David Van Ryn and Haydon Gray from barrier two, Michael Thomas, who is racing well, from three for trainer/driver Lisa Miles and mare Waikare Patricia for Graham McDermott and Chris Alford from barrier seven.
