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He drove him as if he had stole him.
Coastal cracks Tabcorp Park track record
25 February 2011
Lance Justice leads from the front in setting new track mark
Electric Courage Under Fire gelding Coastal earned connections a massive boon in bonuses and himself the new Melton track benchmark by winning Friday night’s inaugural SEW-Eurodrive Flying Free All in dominant front-running fashion.
Sent out a $3.80 second favourite from barrier three in the 1720-metre scamper specially designed to encourage record breaking runs by some of Victoria’s fastest pacers, Coastal was speared straight to the lead and never stopped running throughout.
Carving through a lead time of seven seconds prior to first half fractions of 27.8 and 29.6 seconds respectively, Lance Justice’s lightning five-year-old was already on Tabcorp Park track record pace as he left the home straight with a lap to pace.
Employing his superior speed to repel the death seat challenge of last start Terang Cup king Georgetown in the breeze through a third split of 27.8, Coastal needed only to maintain his momentum late to eclipse Villagem’s previous course standard of 1:57.5.
Cruising into the final turn it appeared the nuggety former Kiwi may even break the magical mark of 1:52 but with no real dangers in the run home he eventually sauntered past the post in 27.9, to complete a 1:52.4 mile rate and etch his name into Victorian harness racing folklore.
Coastal’s brilliant performance saw his total race stakes come to $28,500 - $13,500 for first place prizemoney and $15,000 in speed incentives for breaking the previous track benchmark.
It also represented the greatest possible endorsement of the race as a concept.
Engineered and instituted as yet another way to showcase the state of the art track at Tabcorp Park, while also encouraging the kind of breathtaking speed battles fans of the sport so obviously want to see, the Flying Free For All delivered in spades in its first edition.
Coastal’s 6.2-metre win – the 17th of his 56 start career – took his overall earnings to over $150,000 and further confirmed him as one of Victoria’s quickest and most gifted pacers.
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Running? He's a PACER isn't he?
Previous course standard of 1-57.5????????
Sauntered? Watch the replay. Lance was throwing the lines at him and giving him a fair bit of Larry Dooley with the stick all the way down the stretch. He sauntered...MY BUM!
Last edited by triplev123; 03-02-2011 at 06:44 AM.
He drove him as if he had stole him.
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Last edited by Ziggy; 12-23-2011 at 02:36 PM.
It's wrong though because in Harness Racing and be they Pacers or Trotters the term 'running' is also very aptly employed to describe a horse breaking or jumping off stride. Sauntered, I took that to mean the way it reads, the inference being that he was shut down in the stretch and yet still rolled home for a mile in 52 & a piece, when clearly Lance was all over his rear like a toey Buck Rabbit chasing his Mrs down a Warren. I regularly pray to the thus far demonstrably feeble minded Gods of Harness Racing Journalism to step in and forevermore delete the terms 'running' and 'runners' from the vocabulary of Southern Hemisphere Harness Scribes. One day a real rain will come...
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Last edited by Ziggy; 12-23-2011 at 02:36 PM.
pretty foul idea to give so much money to the trainer/driver
how about the owner of the horse, if he stopped in the straight the owners would have got zero and been left with a destroyed horse
correct me if I'm wrong because I may very well be but wasn't it $5000 trainer $5000 driver and $5000 owner?
Lance knew what the horse was capable of, thats what training is all about getting the horse to its peak fitness then transferring that to the racetrack.
I don't know if the horse was destroyed so much however I agree with Buster re the $$$$. As if the Owners aren't copping it up the blurter enough already???? I think it's a ridiculous idea to whack up the bonus so the trainer/driver takes home 10k of the 15k available. It's the Owner's horse. He should get it all. Every last freaking cent. It's much the same as those damned races where the Trainer wins a Float or the Driver wins a racebike & so on. Who's the one paying the God damned training Bills for crying out aloud?
A % to the breeder. 15/10/75 not a year
Last edited by justdoit; 03-02-2011 at 09:29 PM.
think the guys name is jason bonnington. media manager or something like that at hrv. did the form comments for meetings for a couple of weeks a few months ago. all sounded like he was trying to write a novel.
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