Keayang Chucky winning the Hammerhead Trotters Mile
KEAYANG Chucky has arrived.
For so long the support act in our major trotting races, the Marg and Paddy Lee-trained gelding grabbed his own time in the spotlight with a sparkling $100,000 Group 1 Yabby Dam Farms Hammerhead Trotters’ Mile win at Menangle last Saturday night.
It was his first Group 1 win and quite a statement.
Keayang Chucky’s 1min51.9sec mile was just 0.4sec outside Maori Time’s race, track and Australasian race record from 2017.
It also propelled the six-year-old to a commanding lead on the Australian Trotting Masters’ points table after the first two legs.
A third in the Great Southern Star, combined with victory in the Hammerhead has Keayang Chucky on 140 points, well ahead of Great Southern Star winner Watts Up Partytime (105 points), after he was unplaced in the Hammerhead.
Last year’s Inter Dominion winner The Locomotive is the other key player on 80 points after finishing second in the Great Southern Star and fourth in the Hammerhead, after having to do all the work outside Keayang Chucky.
“We were happy to sit on him (The Locomotive) in the Inter Dominion because the series was a bit of a stepping-stone, but he felt he’d really come on from that and last Saturday night was the time to see if he was to the challenge of leading throughout,” driver Jason Lee said.
“It didn’t surprise us. He really felt like he’d gone to another level and was always in control.
“I’m just so happy for the horse, he really deserved that one after so many big runs in Group 1 races without winning.”
Keayang Chucky underlines the embarrassment of trotting riches for the Lee and Craven clan with last season’s unbeaten megastar filly Keayang Zahara progressing well towards a racetrack return.
She is unbeaten in 14 starts and will likely join Keayang Chucky to give the stable two of the major chances in the next leg of the Australian Trotting Masters, the Brisbane Inter Dominion series at Albion Park in July.
PHOTO: Club Menangle/Pacepix
