Friday Night Lights sees racing at Addington and Auckland tonight as the sport gears up for its biggest week of the year.
Ya Rite Darl will start the night’s shortest priced favourite at Addington which will feature five more heats of the World Driving Championship while Arna Donnelly’s team could well be to the fore at Alexandra Park.
Ya Rite Darl tuning up for THE ASCENT at Addington
By Michael Guerin
A late change of plans will see exciting trotting filly Ya Rite Darl head to Addington tonight rather than tomorrow.
Which provides punters with the most obvious of multi anchors for the last meeting at the big track before its biggest day.
Ya Rite Darl understandably opened $1.20 favourite for tonight’s Horses Perform Better On Betavet Trot, a race she was only thrown in to as an afterthought.
“We were actually going to take her to Addington for fast work on Saturday morning instead,” says driver John Dunn.
“But when I looked at the noms for this race we thought we might as well start in it.
“She is a very good doing filly so it won’t do her any harm.”
That means an extra race for Ya Rite Darl before she takes on the biggest race of her career, the $500,000 Ascent at Addington in a week.
While she looked smart last season she has been the big improver in this grade this spring and she would only have to seem to trot throughout to win tonight.
Team Dunn takes two other young trotting fillies in Petite Armour and Flying Dreams to the opening race tonight and John says the former is the better hope even after her expensive gallop last start.
“That was actually my fault, I let her hit her head on the mobile and she galloped so put that down to driver error,” he admits.
“I think she will trot this week and she should be fitter than the other filly (Flying Dreams) even though there isn’t much between them.”
The stable has Very Majestic in tonight’s Heat 14 of the World Driving Champs with Michael Nimczyk in the sulky and while the field isn’t intimidating Dunn says she is a mare who needs the right run to win.
Away from the WDC heats tonight’s other highlights include an even field of two-year-olds in Race 9 and a red hot debutante in the last race in the well-bred Transonic.
Donnelly takes good chances to Alexandra Park
By Michael Guerin
Arna Donnelly looks set to lead what should be a good night for Waikato stables at Alexandra Park tonight.
Donnelly’s New Zealand Cup dreams may be over for this year but the majority of her team are racing well and several find themselves in the right races tonight.
She starts the night with the very promising filly Opa’s Girl taking on a mixture of fellow juveniles and older horses over 2200m but the way she boomed home from well back to win over 1700m last start she can win again.
Donnelly has two juveniles in Race 3 including debutante Nazare who has won his last three workouts and looks perfectly drawn at barrier two in the five-horse field.
His sectionals have suggested he can step straight into race night company without needing to improve much and he was opened just a $1.80 favourite, with the Cambridge trainer’s other rep Ultimate Lad a $31 chance.
For a small field though there are a few moving parts to this one, with all three of their rivals having shown enough to upset the odds-on favourite without surprising.
Donnelly has the much-improved Final Change in a very even Race 5 but while the three-year-old raced below his best last start his earlier form was very strong in tougher races than what he finds himself in tonight.
While $2.80 favourite Words will be hard to catch if she leads any pressure would bring Final Change into the race late.
Donnelly rounds out her night with the free-going Dragonstone in the main trot and while off 10m over 2200m if she steps as quickly as she can she could still have a shot at leading and being hard to catch.
He will be driven by David Butcher who not only had winning chances with Hooray Henry and You Little Beauty in tonight’s main pace but also a strong book of drives.
Butcher pilots talented little trotting mare Miss Bebe who returns in Race 4 and while she should improve with tonight’s race having only had one workout to prepare, she will be a winner before long.
Her trainer Rodney Frampton lines up a very promising filly in Soul Artist in the last race on the card.
The well-bred daughter of Art Major has won three of her four public outing and the only time she has been beaten was by a subsequent multiple race winner in Tytate back in March.
So between Donnelly, Butcher, Frampton and a few others the Waikato looks set to be in for a good night north of the Bombays.
