Hobby trainer Ange McDowall is both excited and slightly overawed by the prospect of her unbeaten pacer Lumineer shaping up against the two biggest stables in Australasian harness racing.
The hobby trainer from a Victorian coastal hamlet — Childers Cove near Warnambool — taking on the two biggest stables in Australasian harness racing.
That’s the exciting albeit daunting challenge for trainer Ange McDowall and her unbeaten buzz pacer Lumineer.
After seven ultra-impressive wins, Lumineer steps up to the next level when he launches his Victoria Derby assault in the third of three heats at Ballarat on Saturday night.
Between them, champion trainers Emma Stewart and Mark Purdon, have 13 runners across the Derby heats.
Amazingly, Stewart and her training partner Clayton Tonkin have 11 of them.
The Kiwi-based Purdon, who boasts such a lethal strike rate when he and partner Natalie Rasmussen raid Australia, has two very highly-rated runners in The Devils Own and Spankem.
Despite the depth, Lumineer has been so impressive so far, he is the favourite to the win final before a heat has been run.
And he’s a $1.15 chance with TAB to win his Ballarat heat.
“It’s so exciting, but a bit daunting at the same time,” McDowall said. “You can’t help but admire the amazing job those two top stables do and how many great horses they keep producing.
“But that’s the great thing about racing. People like me can compete against them if we get the right horse.”
McDowall thinks she’s got Lumineer primed after two easy lead-up wins, but knows a Derby heat is a new challenge even from a good draw (gate four).
“We haven’t used his gate speed since he won the Australia Gold final (last April), but we know it’s there. I’ll leave it up to Jason (Lee, driving) as to how quick he wants to come out this week.
The in-form Lumineer is a $1.15 chance with TAB to win his Ballarat heat.
“Tam Major is drawn inside us. He’s quick out and fought hard to hold the lead time.
“We’ve done a lot of work with him to settle him. The one risk in blasting it out is firing him up again. That said, he’s versatile. He won leading, sitting parked or coming around the field midrace as he did last time.”
Although McDowall is in awe of the Purdon and Stewart barns, she surprised a little by pin-pointing Grant Dixon’s Queensland raider Colt Thirty One as the horse she most fears of her Derby rivals.
“There’s something about him. I thought he was the danger in the Aussie Gold final as well, but he galloped,” she said. “He looks to have come back well and I really like what I’ve seen of him.”
Colt Thirty One has been backed from $2.80 into $2.40 favourite with TAB to win the first Derby heat with the Purdon-trained The Devils Own ($2.60 to $3.20) and Stewart’s Poster Boy ($7 to $4.80) the main rivals.
Purdon is expected to win the second heat with Spankem drawn the pole and already being crunched from $1.50 into $1.30 with TAB.