Glenn Douglas will drive Lenny Bromac in the Park Douglas Printing Mildura Cup
Glenn Douglas has made a habit of achieving career-bests in what has been a red-letter 2007/08, but he reckons he even outdid himself at the barrier draw for Saturday night’s Park Douglas Printing Mildura Pacing Cup meeting.
It is no surprise that Victoria’s leading trainer, who is just five wins shy of his first century of winners, has runners in seven of the nine races on the bumper program, but what is hard to believe is where some of them drew at the Harness Racing Victoria-conducted barrier draw.
“We’ve got multiple runners in four races and in every one of them they all drew alongside each other,” the Bendigo-based horseman pointed out.
“It’s an amazing coincidence really. You wouldn’t think it could happen.”
Douglas has three runners in the $50,000 Group 2 Park Douglas Printing Mildura Pacing Cup – Bold Cruiser, Sequoiahs Spirit and Lenny Bromac – and they drew barriers eight, nine and 10 respectively.
That follows on from the $22,500 Mark Gurry & Associates Cup where Ohbeoperative and Ferrero will roll from barriers three and four and the $17,500 Loddon Valley Stud Free-For-All where Quantum Kiwi and Just Stay N Alive landed barriers 10 and 11.
Just for good measure, Douglas duo Fantastic Guy and Rocky Beau were allocated barriers nine and 10 in the $8000 Qantaslink Pace Final.
It means Douglas, who also drives when required, will be spending quite a bit of time alongside his brother Daryl, who is Australasia’s leading reinsman and the stable’s No 1 driver, at Mildura.
That duo will share the drives in the races that the stable has dual runners, with Chris Alford called off the bench to complete the stable’s set of drivers in the Cup, which will be run at 9.30pm. Daryl will drive Sequoiahs Spirit in that race with Glenn aboard Lenny Bromac.
The Cup night barrier draws continue what has been an unusual week for the Douglas stable.
On Tuesday night Glenn and Daryl were involved in their first ever dead-heat together when they split one of the Cup heats with Sequoiahs Spirit and Lenny Bromac.
The trainer reported that all three of his Cup finalists had come through their heat runs well – Bold Cruiser was narrowly beaten into second place in his heat – and were all primed to run big races this weekend.
“They’ve settled back into their routine after their races and they’ve eaten well, which is a good sign,” Glenn said.
“I think we showed the other night that our horses, given the right circumstances, are going to be right in the finish.”
