Racing: Draw puts Lazarus in the box seat

Lazarus. File photo / Michael Craig

The perfect path to the New Zealand Trotting Cup continues for Lazarus.

Simply nothing has gone wrong for the superstar four-year-old in the countdown to next Tuesday's $750,000 classic and that continued yesterday when he drew barrier five.

Making that even juicier is the fact fast beginner and Kaikoura Cup winner Franco Nelson drew the second line, while Lazarus's stablemate Have Faith In Me is on the unruly.

Had Lazarus drawn the second line he could have settled back with Have Faith In Me and luck would have played a role, but his front line draw coupled with his excellent standing start manners suggest the Cup is now Lazarus's to lose.

The other big winner in the draw was Smolda, who has barrier three and gives the All Stars stable the first three favourites in the race.

Lower grade pacer Moonrock is a controversial inclusion in the Cup assessed at just c4 and rated 80-1.

Both Have Faith In Me and Lazarus went to the Cup trial at Addington last night and the former was solid winning, showing decent standing start manners and a slight gear change helping him pace more cleanly than he did at Ashburton last start.

But while Have Faith In Me won the 2600m standing start trial from Lazarus and Christen Me, none of that trio were asked for their best in the straight and Lazarus in particular looked to be jogging.

With the very real likelihood he could settle 12 or even 15 lengths in front of Have Faith In Me on Tuesday, it is hard to argue against him as the Cup winner. TAB bookies definitely think so as he was $1.80 last night, with Have Faith In Me out to $5.50 and Smolda at $6.

With Lewy Risk the emergency, if he comes out Christen Me will start from the outside of the front line.

The other to star at yesterday's Cup trials was northern three-year-old Star Galleria, who easily downed Sires' Stakes favourite Ultimate Machete.

He has drawn best of the favourites in Tuesday's group one and looms as a huge chance for Steven Reid and Simon McMullan.