Wheen Christen Me's trainer Cran Dalgety announced his star pacer would miss the Group 1 Len Smith Mile at Tabcorp Park Menangle later this month and head straight to Queensland, rival harness racing trainer David Aiken decided to reconsider his plans.
Aiken was keen to keep Inter Dominion winner Lennytheshark and rising star Hectorjayjay apart until the Perth Inter Dominion however he has confirmed the pair will clash in the Len Smith Mile. After the June 26 race, Hectorjayjay will continue onto Queensland while Lennytheshark will remain in Sydney.
"Josh (Aiken) told me that Cran Dalgety had decided to go straight to Queensland with Christen Me so I thought I might as well start Hectorjayjay in the Len Smith Mile against Lennytheshark," Aiken said.
"It is a dream to have two horses the quality of Lennytheshark and Hectorjayjay in your stable at the one time, obviously the headache is keeping them apart as often as you can. I think the gap between the two has closed noticeably and I know the driver of Hectorjayjay (Gavin Lang) is pretty excited and he doesn't get excited about much."
Aiken confirmed the recent bad weather in Sydney had caused him a few concerns with Lennytheshark but he has already overcome those issues.
"I wanted to give Lenny a trial at Menangle on Monday but because of the rain and the flooding around the track the races were transferred to Wednesday. The main track was closed but I was still able to give him a good hit-out on the training track.
"He always improves with racing, he works his way into his campaign. The draw on Saturday night isn't ideal but he'll be better for the run and the Len Smith Mile is the main target, I then will just keep him ticking over until Perth which is a long time away."
Lennytheshark is likely to remain in Aiken's Sydney stables if he can get access to the water walker.
"Once I can start to use the water walker at Menangle it will be perfect. I like Lenny to do a lot of his work in the water walker so if he can use the one being built at Menangle then I'd be more inclined to keep him in Sydney.
"If there was an attractive race for him in Melbourne he would definitely go south and compete."
Greg Hayes