David Lewis
WITH the maiden 305-metre grading policy being youngest-up, it had been a case of Arrow Bar Peanut finding herself on the reserve bench in yesterday’s heats of the Razza Racing Feature Maiden.
As luck would have it, though, the August 2020 whelping gained a start in the first of the four heats after Tony Harding’s Penshurst Lad, drawn in box eight, had won a maiden at Tara Raceway on the previous Thursday.
The daughter of Aston Dee Bee and Samsara Lass made every post a winner when leading all the way for a 6¼ length win over Allinga Blues in 17.62 seconds – the quickest of the heats.
Purchased for $3000 as a three-month-old pup, Arrow Bar Peanut is owned and trained at Ballarat by Trent Blacker who said that despite her age she had raced on only two occasions leading up to yesterday’s race.
“She hadn’t raced since October due to injury problems but after she recently trialled well against Abby Doll, who won for me here back in November, I decided to have a try with her in the Razza Racing series,” he said.
The second heat was a keenly-contested affair with first-starter Plenty Of Value overcoming a slow start from box four and finishing over the top of Cadillac Gas for a half-length win in 18.52 seconds.
Owned and trained at Killarney by Kevin Mugavin, Plenty Of Value is by Feral Franky out of Cloona Lass, a 650-metre winner at Warrnambool.
“I reckon I’ve got some that are better than this one,” he said.
“But, having said that, as far as next week’s final is concerned, he should find a bit on today’s run.”
In the third heat, another first starter in Devilish Child, despite running wide on the home turn, defeated Classic Reward by 2¼ lengths in 17.81 seconds for the local Bartholomew family – Elysia, Lee and Steve.
Trained by Elysia, Devilish Child is a daughter of former champion stayer Blue Moon Rising and Galactic Destiny, a litter sister to 2019 Mount Gambier Cup winner Galactic Athena.
Wrapping up the heats was Gypsy Chick who led all the way and held out Comet To Burn for a half-length win in 17.76 seconds.
Trained at Moorak by Jason Newman, Gypsy Chick is raced by local legend Shane Flink who purchased the daughter of Bernardo and Spirited Bingle at three months of age from Portland breeder Robert Halliday.
Sponsored by Tony and Lisa Rasmussen of Gifford Hill, this is the third year the Razza Racing Feature Maiden has been run over 305 metres at Tara Raceway.
They certainly had a night to remember last Saturday after Victa Damian won the Group 1 National Derby at Sydney’s Wentworth Park and Victa Marli ran third in the National Futurity.
