By Adam Hamilton
Tact McLeod’s Inter Dominion campaign may have been thwarted, but the emerging Kiwi pacer will chase some other big races in Australia.
Trainer Mark Jones confirmed the Bendigo, Ballarat and Hunter Cups were on the menu for the gelding, who was scratched from a late bid at the NSW Inter Dominions with an abscess.
Tact McLeod, who hasn’t raced since a luckless fifth in the Group 1 NZ Free-For-All at Addington on November 15, will return to racing in a support race at Menangle at Saturday night’s Inter Dominion Grand Final meeting.
“That’s where he’ll run,” Jones said. “We also entered him for a race at Melton the same night, but that was just a precaution in case he didn’t get a run at Menangle, which he did.
“He’s ready to go. The abscess was really just a timing thing, he was over it quickly, but not quickly enough to run in that first round of heats.
“This race (race one at Menangle) looks like a good starting point for him with the best horses in the Inter Dominion final or consolation. He looks very well graded.”
Ironically, a pacer very well known to Kiwis, former topliner South Coast Arden, looks Tact McLeod’s main danger.
South Coast Arden has won both runs back from a spell for trainer Paul Fitzpatrick, but will start from gate seven, while Tact McLeod has barrier four.
In another synergy, the race is a heat of the Australasian Young Drivers’ series and Kiwi Sam Thornley is drawn to partner Tact McLeod.
South Coast Arden will be driven by young Victorian star Ewa Justice, daughter of John Justice of Shakamaker fame.
After this week’s race, Tact McLeod will head to the Victorian stables of Anthony Butt and Sonya Smith to prepare for a string of targets.
“There’s some really good options there, finishing up with the Hunter Cup,” Jones said.
Lees change focus after Keayang Zahara’s heroics
Having conquered New Zealand, Marg Lee now has another career milestone in sight.
Lee won’t just have her first runner but rather three of them – that’s a quarter of the field – in the Inter Dominion trotting final at Menangle on Saturday night.
Her only previous Inter Dominion runner was a pacer, Keayang Cullen, who ran 11th and eighth respectively in the pacing finals of 2013 and ’14.
For her son Jason, who drove Keayang Zahara to three dominant victories in New Zealand, this will be his first drive in any Inter Dominion final when he teams with the family’s top hope, Keayang Chucky, a $5 chance from gate three.
“It’s been an amazing year, especially these past few months,” Marg Lee said, “you’ve got to pinch yourself to get a trotter like Keayang Zahara. We’ve been in the game a long time and done the hard yards and to have her come along is a dream.
Keayang Zahara’s New Zealand campaign culminated with an eight length demolition of the field in Friday’s Garrards New Zealand Trotting Derby at Addington.
“Now, as she goes out for a spell, the others step-up and give us three in this (Inter Dominion) final. Just getting one in would’ve been terrific, but three is amazing. All credit to Paddy (Lee, Marg’s son), he’s done all the work with them in Sydney and they’ve all thrived.
“Keayang Chucky is our best hope, especially from the draw. Jase will drive him.
“Will (Rixon) will drive our second pick, Paddy will work that out with him, then we’ll offer Lochie Cook the other drive. He deserves that with all the work he’s done at home.”
Rixon, a NSW young gun and family friend of the Lee’s, did the stable driving in the first two rounds heats while Jason Lee focused on Keayang Zahara in NZ.
Saturday night will be 23-year-old Rixon’s first Inter Dominion final drive in a career which has netted almost 700 wins, but just one at Group 1 level.
Meanwhile, Keayang Zahara is due back at the Lee’s Ecklin South farm, about three hours south-west of Melbourne, later this week.
“She flies into Sydney and then we’ll float her back home for a good spell. She won’t be back for any of those races early next year,” Lee said.
