LAZARUS SET FOR $US600,000 CANADIAN PACING DERBY
By NEALE DONNELLEY
CHAMPION NZ-bred pacer LAZARUS, now tagged “The Wonder from Down-Under” in his new home of North America, will tackle some of the world’s best in Canada today (Sunday morning).
Fresh from his dominant win in the $300,000 Dan Patch Stakes when making his US debut three weeks ago, LAZARUS will start from barrier two in the Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk Raceway, in Ontario.
Just like the adulation he received in his homeland of New Zealand and adopted home Australia, LAZARUS is ‘big’ in the US.
Trained by the legendary Jimmy Takter, LAZARUS commands more press requests and media attention than any horse since the mighty Somebeachsomewhere 10 years ago.
Takter has trained more champions than one could imagine, and he too describes LAZARUS “as a very special horse”.
The dual New Zealand Cup and Inter-Dominion winner won 35 of 45 starts in Australia for $3m in prize-money, before being sold to a huge US breeding farm called Taylor Made Stallions.
Normally associated with thoroughbred racing, Taylor Made Stallions ventured into harness racing at the top end and not surprisingly gave the son of super-sire Bettor’s Delight to Jimmy Takter.
Lazarus is being compared to the mighty Cardigan Bay, the NZ pacer who 50 years ago dared go to America and beat the best they had.
Ironically the first race Cardigan Bay won in the US was the Dan Patch Stakes, thus the comparisons.
Younger folk won’t remember Cardigan Bay, but he was a true legend and in fact was the first race horse of any code to win $1 million, anywhere in the world.
When ‘Cardy’ beat Bret Hanover at the famous Yonkers raceway in New York in 1966 in a race dubbed the Race Of The century, he shattered a 17-race winning streak from the US super-star.
Now he is being compared to Cardigan Bay and in many quarters lauded as the best pacer to have every come from New Zealand.
His performances in the US and Canada in the next 12 months will likely prove that, and he gets his chance against many of the world’s best in the Canadian Derby, which is open to all age groups.
For what it is worth, your correspondent has never seen a better standardbred horse anywhere in the world.
The rest of the world is about to find out!
Ends