Harness racing three year old Lazarus has looked the benchmark amongst his age group in New Zealand all season and the Woodlands Northern Derby last night at Alexandra Park was no different with Lazarus showing once again that he is in a class of his own.
Fresh up since his Victoria Derby win on January 30 and coming back from a very minor injury scare, Lazarus was simply a class above the field as his winning margin of 4 1/2 lengths would suggest.
After drawing perfectly at barrier two, all the pundits thought driver Mark Purdon would grab an early lead with the star colt but Mark restrained him early.
" "There was a lot of speed early and I had the option to hold my ground until things settled down," Mark said.
Working to the front after 700 metres, Lazarus was never in any trouble from then on.
Even though he had Chase The Dream hard on his back on the final turn, Lazarus simply ran away and hid by 4 1/2 lengths from stablemate Chase The Dream with another 2 1/4 lengths back to Walkinshaw in third, just ahead of a very game Buster Bailey who looped the field from last and stuck on very gamely for fourth.
Such was his dominance, Purdon was able to let Lazarus cruise to the line under his own steam.
Lazarus paced the 2700 metres in 3:17.1, a mile rate of 1:57.4 with quick closing sectionals of 55.3 and 27.6 which was just one tenth of a second outside of the race and New Zealand record set by Sushi Sushi in the 2011 Northern Derby
"He could have broken the record if I knew we were that close."
"He's a class act, just a really professional race horse," Mark said.
Last nights victory was the seventh this season from seven starts for the son of Bettor's Delight and Mark Purdon has only got a handful more planned for his star colt this season.
" He will take in the New Zealand Derby at Addington and then the Harness Jewels at Cambridge and that might be enough for this season," Mark said.
Lazarus has already won $767,000 in his short career to date and if he wins his remaining two big targets this season he will be very close to becoming a millionaire as a three year old.
Harnesslink Media