The stock of Julius Caesar is commanding respect fast

Julius Caesar is commanding respect fast

Harnesslink News Room 07:00 PM 09-Dec-2009 NZT

Laurence Hanrahan (left) presents - Ian Dobson with Christian Cullen's Stallion Of The Yr award

The stock of In The Pocket stallion Julius Caesar finished the day at Ashburton today (Wednesday) with a hiss and a roar with Chain Of Command winning race seven, followed shortly after by a siring the quinella in the last with Empire Flame holding out Smooth Julius for line honours.

The full brother to harness racing giant Christian Cullen has this season been showing signs of leaving better than average racehorses, given the time to mature. Although in his first season at stud he produced three two year old winners from just seven starters, Reklaws Chance (5 wins,$42,000) Silver Ranger (6 wins,$ 41,000) Napoleon Dynamite (6 wins,$56,000).

All three have matured into much nicer 4yr olds. The proming Cran Dalgety trained 4yr old Romulus (3 wins,$25,000) along with Smooth Julius(3 wins,$25,000) as well as both of today's winners, have been the mainstay and flagship for the once promising but lightly raced stallion.

The Terry McMillan trained and driven Chain Of Command showed his typical tradesman like attributes to race handy to the pace, before running out an eventual winner by 3/4 length over the proming Franco Czar. The overall time was a moderate 3.04.5, but sharp sectionals of 56.2 for the 800,and 26.9 for the last 400 would suggest Chain Of Command is smarter than your average bear. It was the Julius Caeasar geldings third win from nine starts.

After taking out the junior drivers race with Christian Cullen mare Quattro Del in the hands of Tim Williams, Ashburton trainer Laurence Hanrahan finished the day off in superb fashion when man of the month "Ricky May", completed a double for his longtime friend, steering the promising Empire Flame home to beat the Terry Chimiel trained Smooth Julius in a time of 3.04.5. Last 800 in 55.5,closing 400 in 26.2. impressive sectionals even with the hot Norwest conditions.

"We had been looking for a nice 3yr old last season for good stable clients Jack,Ian and Bruce Phillips, when Justin Le Lievre approached us with the then Peter Jones trained Empire Flame. I really liked him and suggested we had better not let him get away, said Hanrahan. He started out of his grade today, but it was a Harness plus race, and i do think he can win a few races this fellow, he's a very nice horse," Hanrahan continued.

Quattro Del will most likely race at the Invercargill meeting next Tuesday with Empire Flame to front Thursday week for the Timaru HRC meeting at Addington Raceway.

THE STATS:

Top Trainer: Laurence Hanrahan 2 wins.

Top Sire: Julius Caesar and Sundon 2 wins each.

Top Junior Driver: Dexter Dunn and Tim Williams 1 win each.

Top Driver: 8 winning drivers from 8 races.

Results from the Ashburton Trotting Clubs meeting at Ashburton today (Wednesday) were:

Race 1: The David Mitchell trained IMA ICON (Falcon's Icon) Dexter Dunn.

Race 2: The The Leo O'Reilly trained and driven DREAMIT (Dream Vacation).

Race 3: The Laurence Hanrahan trained QUATTRO DELL (Christian Cullen) Tim Williams.`

Race 4: The Murray Tapper trained and driven DISTRIBUTION (Sundon).

Race 5: The Steven McRae trained INDRAH (Courage Under Fire) Craig Thornley.

Race 6: The Mike Austin trained DEJAZZMAN (Sundon) Blair Orange.