Racing: Youngsters meet their match in final

A collective groan rang out from the trainers of New Zealand's elite juvenile pacers yesterday.

Because many of them will be going into Friday night's $200,000 Sires' Stakes Final at Addington virtually conceding defeat to Kotare Mach.

The exceptional youngster has looked the best freshman pacer in the country for the last six weeks and will start a red-hot favourite after drawing barrier one yesterday.

With the gate speed he showed winning the Welcome Stakes last start most punters - and more importantly rival trainers and drivers - will see Kotare Mach as the likely leader and winner.

And that could see him start as short as $1.50 in the hottest juvenile race of the year.

The field also contains exciting northerner Stormy Sirocco, drawn two on the second line in his biggest test, and the three stars of last Saturday's Sales Series Pace, First Star Anvil, Smiling Shard and Courage To Rule.

But unless something unexpected happens at the start of Friday's 1950m dash it will take a special performance to down Kotare Mach.

The night's other hot group one favourite, Lauraella, will have to overcome a second-line draw again in the $150,000 New Zealand Oaks.

But after she trounced most of her opponents in last Saturday's Nevele R Fillies Final, Lauraella looks set to dominate again, particularly with key rivals Joyfuljoy (10) and Beaudiene Bad Babe (6) getting tricky draws.

The last major Addington meeting of the season also sees Monkey King get a gift race in the $25,000 Winter Cup, while star youngsters like Sleepy Tripp, Stunin Cullen and Leighton Hest will also use the night as their lead-up to the Jewels on May 30.

Addington Friday night feature fields: 57.24: WINTER CUP (Listed) $25,000, 5 or more wins special handicap pace, 3200m (13) TAB double two 1 48984 Biella Star tds (1) fr R D Holmes 2 36314 Absolute Magic tms (2) fr C De Filippi 3 43578 Ohoka Nevada dms (3) fr D Butt 4 185P0 Corka Dream tm (Ur) fr J Dunn 5 51224 Georgetown tm (1) 10 K Barron 6 79800 Charles Bronson tms (2) 10 P Court 7 26121 Bettor's Strike tdmsw (3) 10 D Dunn (J) 8 11937 Announcement tmsw (4) 10 J Hay 9 15905 St Barts tmw (1) 20 C D Thornley 10 33372 Special Ops tcdms (2) 20 S Walkinshaw (J) 11 318X9 Bondy tcdms (3) 20 R D Butt 12 26641 Fake Chance tms (4) 20 M Purdon 13 11191 Monkey King tcdmsw (Ur) 20 R May .

78.20: GARRARD'S SIRES' STAKES FINAL (Gr1) $200,000, 2yo mobile pace, 1950m (15) TAB double three TAB treble two 1 35111 Kotare Mach tcdm (1) fr B Orange 2 5300 Beaudiene Christian (2) fr J Keast 3 35008 Limited Edition (3) fr T Chmiel 4 12212 Smiling Shard tcdm (4) fr D Dunn (J) 5 77113 Courage To Rule m (5) fr M White 6 62211 Five Star Anvil tcdm (6) fr 7 31 Code Red dm (7) fr R D Holmes 8 43000 Leonidas (8) fr N McGrath - Second Line - 9 44125 Metallica m (9) fr A Herlihy 10 351 Best Chance tcdm (10) fr M Jones 11 112 Stormy Sirocco m (11) fr G Robb 12 554 Cloncullen (12) fr S Reid 13 84420 Black Mambo b (13) fr C De Filippi 14 24847 Mapua Legend tcdm (14) fr 15 85341 CC Star m (15) fr T Mitchell. Emergencies: Best Chance, Cloncullen..

99.20: NZ OAKS (Gr1) $150,000, 3yo fillies mobile pace, 2600m (16) TAB double four 1 33214 Alexis tcdm (1) fr 2 33123 Imagine Me tcdmsw (2) fr M Purdon 3 64511 Telemecanique tmw (3) fr D Butt 4 07980 Petra's Star m (4) fr N Williamson (J) 5 14348 Arden's Darlin tm (5) fr J Curtin 6 46521 Honey Rose Falcon tm (6) fr A Herlihy 7 16112 Beaudiene Bad Babe m (7) fr R May 8 12225 Chardanae m (8) fr T Macfarlane 9 51177 Shamrock Shella tm (9) fr T Mitchell - Second Line - 10 31017 Joyfuljoy tmsb (10) fr B Orange 11 61911 Crystal Star tcdmsw (11) fr 12 11111 Lauraella tdm (12) fr D Butcher 13 31350 Twist N Shout mw (13) fr 14 62330 Wonderful Tonight tm (14) fr K Barron 15 24500 Raindowne msw (15) fr D Dunn (J) 16 84715 Uno Alice tcdm (16) fr G O'Reilly. Emergencies: Twist N Shout, Telemecanique.