Catch up on the week's harness racing action in our weekly review, thanks to Darren Clayton.
THE GOOD
The annual Our Overanova Trotters Marathon was run on Saturday night with the Richard Hutchinson-trained Kingdom Come defying age and market expectation to claim victory.
The race named to honour the greatest square gaiter ever trained in Queensland, came with plenty of symmetry aligned to the winner.
Our Overanova sits second for most ever race victories at Albion Park with 51, only Destreos has won more races around 'The Creek'.
The last of those wins came in July of 2021 with the Grant Dixon-trained square gaiter bowing out in style with the race plates taken off for the final time with a win next to his name.
Kingdom Come competed in that same race, finishing seventh on that occasion when Lachie Manzelmann took the reins.
The symmetry extends further, with Kingdom Come and Our Overanova both from the same 2009 New Zealand crop of Monarchy and both are bred on the same cross, being out of Sundon mares.
Our Overanova retired after 203 career starts, while for Kingdom Come, his win on Saturday night was at his 206th race appearance, both trotters sporting the distinctive pacifiers as part of their gear.
Taking over the training of Kingdom Come in December 2020, Hutchinson has kept the veteran happy in his environment and been able to start him 127 times since joining his stable.
“He is just such a happy horse, nothing bothers him,” Hutchinson said after the win.
Saturday night’s win was the ninth time the gelding has won for Hutchinson, with a further 29 placings and $162,000 stakes banked in that time.
For driver Leonard Cain, the win was his first victory aboard Kingdom Come after 31 previous drives aboard the veteran, with Narissa McMullen recording one win and the other seven Queensland victories all secured by Lachie Manzelmann.
“That’s the first time Leonard has won on him, he drove him exactly how he needs to be driven,” Hutchinson said after the win.
“I did think we might have been behind the leader, not three back.
“He needs some things to go his way, that is how it works with his style, but that worked out perfectly."
Perfect it was, Cain angling off the pegs at the right moment with the leader, Indefensible starting to feel the pinch at his first run back from a spell.
Edging to the front with 400 metres to travel, Kingdom Come responded to Cain’s urgings and held off a fast-finishing Tam Oshanter.
Stopping the clock in a rate of 2.01.8, amazingly the 14-year-old shaved 0.6 seconds off the track record set by C K Spur in last year’s marathon.
With some records hard to locate, Kingdom Come would certainly be up there as the oldest horse to win a Saturday night feature event at Albion Park.
THE BAD
Now a major target on the Queensland calendar, four heats of the Oakwood Capital Goldstrike series were conducted at Marburg on Sunday.
The popular standing start format sees pacers drawn in similar class brackets to all start off the same front line in the heats before being handicapped for the Final.
With four heats conducted on Sunday, it proved a tough day for the punters, with no winner starting favourite in their respective heats.
The opening heat saw the in-form Party Changer maintain his winning sequence, making it three successive victories after beginning quickly for trainer and driver Lola Weidemann, firing out to find the front and once in control was never in danger in claiming a decisive victory.
Altana Blue was sent to the post as the punters elect and after sitting behind Party Changer throughout, held on for third to just sneak into the Final to be held on Easter Sunday.
In the second heat, the Matthew Clayton-trained One Last Roll started favourite and like the favourite in the first heat, settled in the trail.
Again, it was the leader that prevailed, the Ryan Veivers-trained, and Dannielle Veivers-reined Mongolian Conqueror held on to claim victory, proving his liking for the Marburg circuit with his sixth victory around the 700 metre oval.
The third heat saw Ellis Street and Majordoit start as equal favourites and both pacers finishing unplaced after making errors.
It was the Andrew Millard-trained Little Bolt that proved too strong for the opposition, sitting parked and holding on for a narrow victory as a $13 elect.
Hit The Track held on for second as an $81 chance for Zac Chappenden, while Mach Brilliance was able to avoid a galloping Ellis Street to grab third after being sent out as a $151 hope.
In the final heat, Midnight Calm was supported to run as the $2.20 favourite for trainer and driver Matt Elkins and after leading the field and running them along, faded over the closing stages to miss a place.
Making a strong mid-race move to get outside the leader, the Leonard Cain-driven Mydadsaid proved too strong and pulled clear for an emphatic 14 metre margin over Sir Brigadoon for Brendan Barnes.
The win of Mydadsaid set a new track record of 1.59.5, shaving 0.5 off the previous record held by Misty Creek.
THE WILDCARD
Concentrating on driving in recent seasons, Adam Sanderson has made the most of his opportunities and last season was able to surpass 1000 career driving wins.
Preparing a runner on nine occasions in the past three seasons without a placing as a trainer, Sanderson has taken on the mare Dance Addition in recent weeks and on Saturday the mare had her first start for her new trainer.
Contesting the Changeover at Burwood Stud Mares Qualifier, the five-year-old was a first up winner, gaining the perfect trip in behind the leader.
With space to angle to outside when the field turned for home, Sanderson right lined Dance Addition and the mare sprinted strongly to reel in the leader Carly Morgan and pull clear to claim a 6.8 metre winning margin.
A daughter of A Rocknroll Dance, it was the tenth career victory for Dance Addition which was formerly trained by Neil Day at Goulburn for the Truer family.
For Sanderson, with only limited starters over the past four years, he has been stuck in the ‘nervous 90s’ over that period, the win of Dance Addition taking his career tally to 94 training winners.
While Sanderson may have now trained just one winner in the past four seasons, his driving winners have been high in number and quality in the same period, steering home 285 winners and competing in some of the biggest races.
The winners include his association with the Shannon Price-trained Speak The Truth, winning the Queensland Sun, The Hayden, the four-year-old Triad Final, an Inter Dominion heat and Miracle Mile Qualifying Sprint over the past 12 months.
Winning a second Darrel Alexander Memorial Trotting Championship last season with Jaccka Watch and a Simpson Sprint with Sure Thing Captain, Sanderson has been able to compete in such esteemed races as the Inter Dominion Grand Final, Miracle Mile and New South Wales Derby in the past three months.
THE MILESTONE
Warwick-based horseman Dayl March is experiencing a strong run of success that was highlighted with a driving treble at Redcliffe last Thursday.
March drove four winners for the week to take his season tally to 13 wins after 11 weeks of the season, just five wins shy of his 2023 season total when steering home 18 winners.
The 13 winners this season from 104 drives already surpasses the season totals that March has led home every season since the 2015-16 season.
Thursday’s treble started when leading throughout with Perfect Feeling, a pacer he also trains, the eight-year-old claiming his second win for the season.
The second came when driving the Anthony Collins-trained Certainlycallitin, the mare leading throughout to claim a career best 1.59.4 victory.
Also based in Warwick, it was the sixth winner that Collins has trained this season, eclipsing his previous best season of five winners in the 2006-07 season.
The treble for March came up one race later, when Maywn A Jug Ortwo was able to finish over the top of his opposition to secure is 16th career victory.
It was the sixth career treble for March, the last coming on his home track at Warwick back in 2020 and the first he has recorded at Redcliffe.
THIS WEEK
This week will see five race meetings in the state, with three from Albion Park and two from Redcliffe.
Tuesday will see nine races from 'The Creek' with a two-year-old event held for the third successive week, this time to be held over the 2138 metre trip.
A total of 10 races are set down for Wednesday night at Redcliffe with an early start time of 4:18pm for the first race, before the Thursday afternoon meeting.
Saturday night will see the running of the Lou Cini Memorial, remembering the legacy of the former horseman and father to current trainers Stephen and Charlie.
