Is the fallen champion back to his best? Can he get off the canvas and do what no other pacer has done? For Lazarus, the $750,000 Miracle Mile on Saturday night will reach a climatic finale of biblical proportions.
Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen have been here before.
It was November 29, 2009 when the pair, who at the time barely knew each other, arrived at Menangle very separately for a Miracle Mile with a pacing great a piece.
Rasmussen was the trainer-driver of Blacks A Fake the four-time Inter Dominion hero and still Australasia’s richest ever pacer.
Purdon trained Kiwi speed freak Auckland Reactor, a horse seemingly suited to Sydney’s need-for-speed race.
Both superstars were drawn wide, settled back, and barely ran past a horse, finishing alongside each other near last.
Back then Purdon and Rasmussen wouldn’t have had much to say, they didn’t even exchange more than a casual hello till 2011, before soon after becoming the most powerful couple in the history of harness racing.
Harness racing champion Lazarus. Picture: Ashlea Brennan Source:Supplied
But that dusty November day they both learned a lesson: You don’t win the Miracle Mile going backwards.
It is still seared into their memories as tonight Lazarus, a hybrid of Blacks A Fake and Auckland Reactor, rolls onto the track for the $750,000 Ainsworth Miracle Mile.
Before this Miracle Mile though they will talk. The conversation will be short.
Rasmussen will ask her partner if Lazarus is ready. Really ready?
If Purdon says yes, Rasmussen will unleash the world’s most powerful pacer.
“If Mark tells me he is back to his best, then I will be driving him like that,” says Rasmussen, fearless as she is blunt.
She has driven the two fastest miles ever paced in Australia with Have Faith In Me and Adore Me, the latter when she started from the outside of the front line and ran as hard as she could for as long as she could until her rival’s couldn’t take it.
“I drove Adore Me four wide, three wide and then parked and she bolted in 1:47.7,” says Rasmussen.
All we need is a miracle: Lazarus and trainer Mark Purdon. Picture: Ashlea Brennan Source:Supplied
“And Laz is better than her. She was a great, great mare, but Laz is better.”
Saturday night’s problem for Lazarus is two-fold.
He was below his best, troubled by the lingering effects of a virus when he clawed his way into third in his Mile prelude last Saturday and then he drew the outside barrier for Saturday night’s glamour sprint.
No pacer has even run a place in the Menangle Miracle Mile from the outside barrier. No horse has won from outside barrier five.
“You don’t win Miracle Miles going back, those top horses don’t come back to you,” says Rasmussen. “But if Mark has Laz back to his best then I’m there to race. I will let him show me how good he is.”
Lazarus has rarely let the pair, or his fans, down. After two New Zealand Cups, an Inter Dominion, a Hunter Cup and a Victoria Cup, the Mile is the only missing jewel in his crown.
Well-named, he has bounced back from adversity before, winning the Hunter Cup three weeks ago when a fortnight earlier he was lame and in doubt.
Mark Purdon works on Lazarus’s fitness. Picture: Ashlea Brennan Source:Supplied
Now, like a boxer floored, he must get off the canvas and do what no other pacer has done. He needs a miracle.
Blacks A Fake couldn’t do it and he was a warrior. Could Lazarus be even better?
“Maybe,” offers Rasmussen.
“Blackie was amazing but maybe he would have been even better if I was the trainer then I am now, having learned so much from Mark.
“But Laz has that x-factor, that stamina and speed. And he has confidence, confidence that comes from all that winning from a young age.
“Is he better than Blackie?” muses Rasmussen.
“If Mark gives me the word on Saturday night, I am going to go find out.”
Lazarus salutes in the Victoria Cup last year. Picture: Stuart McCormick Source:Herald Sun
By Michael Guerin