A pacer named in honour of a young African burns victim is poised for his greatest triumph this Saturday night at Mildura.
Headstrong Fake Left stallion Safari is a dominant $1.65 favourite with TAB Sportsbet ahead of the Group 2 $50,000 Park Douglas Printing Mildura Pacing Cup.
The brilliant pacer showed the fighting qualities of his namesake, Safari Kimanthi, the youngster who captured the heart of the nation several years back on Channel 9's RPA program, with a dynamic heat win on Tuesday night.
The seven-year-old did it tough outside the leader for most of the 2600-metre journey but still careered away to an effortless 16-metre victory in track record time.
Safari's winning mile rate of 1:59 took 1.5 seconds off the record set an hour earlier by fellow Pacing Cup heat winner Scott Patrick.
Since returning from a lengthy 10 month spell in late January, the Emma Stewart-trained pacer has captured the Geelong Cup and finished second in the Bendigo and Terang Cups, together with The Pure Steel at Moonee Valley.
Under the preferential draw on class, he'll start from a tough barrier 11 on the compact Mildura circuit, but even that's not expected to stop him.
The main dangers in his pursuit of career win number 22 are Penny Veejay (barrier 10, $4.20), Scott Patrick (four, $7) and B H Cullen (six, $9).
Penny Veejay was sent out an odds-on favourite in the heat won by Scott Patrick, but galloped and lost close to 50-metres when challenging that pacer for the early lead.
Thanks to a smart drive from Chris Alford he recovered to finish fifth and scrape into the final, where he still looms as a serious threat on his best behaviour.
It shapes as big night for Ballarat-based Stewart, who also leading chances in two of the co-features, the $17,500 Mark Gurry & Associates Cup Final and the $15,000 Danem Property Group Mildura Guineas Final.
Manwarra Goforgold, the $1.60 TAB Sportsbet favourite, and Franco Harbourmaster will fly the flag for the 25-year-old in the Cup Final, whilst Musto will represent the stable in the Guineas.
The Park Douglas Printing Mildura Pacing Cup will be run at 10.10pm on Saturday and headlines a huge nine race program in the state's far north which kicks off at 7pm.
