Ballarat will host the Tontine Pacers Series Final tonight.
Trainer David Lewis would love to win the Flying Horse Bistro Tontine Series Final tonight at Ballarat and has a pacer capable of playing a major role in the Group 3 race.
The Fat Man has won three races on the spin and is second-favourite with the TAB fixed odds market for tonight’s $30,505 feature from his gate four draw.
“It’s definitely a race I’d love to win,” said Lewis, who trains in Hamilton, which is Tontine heartland.
The Tontine series was first run in 1981 and was the brainchild of the late John Fladgate, then president of the Hamilton Harness Racing Club.
The term “tontine” refers to a financial scheme in which dividends from an initial pooled investment are progressively increased as investors are eliminated with the entire fund going to the lucky last survivor, wrote trots scribe Tony Logan in 2012.
The Fat Man defeated Major Secret in the Hamilton Tontine heat on February 4, rating 1:58.1 for the 2160m trip.
The Fat Man led and went 60.8 for the first half before sprinting home in 55.7 seconds.
He’d won his prior start at Maryborough from the death seat in 1:59.7 by 2.4m over Elsu Prince.
“I’m very happy with the horse,” Lewis said.
“There are some nice horses in the race though.
“I don’t know if we can lead because there’s a bit of speed around him.”
But Lewis knows a victory in the Tontine Final generally bodes well for the future.
“History says if he does win the Tontine he’ll go on and make a really nice racehorse,” Lewis said.
“He put 20m on the third horse (Angus T Jones) at Hamilton, so that was a pretty good run really.”
The Fat Man was bred by Peter and Beatrice Salathiel.
He is by US sire American Ideal, who is the seventh highest stakes-earning sire in Australia this season and whose progeny have won 47 races from 87 starts in 2014-15.
His dam Atomic Fusion also threw Ay Tee Em and Giggling Girl, who both earned over $100,000 in stakes and won 28 races between them.
The Tontine Final is Race 7 at Bray Raceway tonight at 9.30pm.
