Coastal Babe races at Alexandra Park with new driver Taitlyn Hanara

Diet and training tweaks have boosted Coastal Babe's form, says trainer Steven Reid. Photo / Trish Dunell

Trainer Steven Reid has no concerns handing the reins on his stable star to a junior driver who has never sat behind her at Alexandra Park tonight.

The Pukekohe trainer has managed to sneak his Group 1 winning filly Coastal Babe into the main pacing race tonight by using claiming junior driver Taitlyn Hanara, whose claim means the Rating 69 filly gets into the up-to-Rating 65 race.

Coastal Babe will still have to start from the outside of the seven horses in the 2200m mobile but if she races up to her last start form that probably won’t matter, even though regular driver Matty White will be replaced by Hanara.

“I am happy to have Taitlyn on and I am sure she will be fine,” says Reid.

“She has plenty of experience and she has worked for Tony (Herlihy) so she has been taught how to drive properly.

“I haven’t even bothered getting her across to have a trackwork drive on her (Coastal Babe) because she is a pretty straightforward filly with no idiosyncrasies.”

Hanara should be up to the task of driving the horse carrying the most punter’s money tonight as she is a former Kidz Kartz champion who has tended to drive much poorer horses well, so has earned her spin on a proper filly.

Reid says Coastal Babe has thrived since he changed her diet and work programme, as she was struggling with tying-up issues.

“I jog her a lot less and she does more short, sharp work to stop her tying up and she is loving it.

“That and I have taken oats out of her feed,” he says in reference to the high-energy oats often contributing to tying-up issues.

Hanara will have two options tonight, with Coastal Babe having the gate speed to go forward and control the race. She was also very strong to the line last start when White opted to be passive early, attack mid-race and her respect saw her secure the lead and win easily.

With a fair bit of gate speed inside her tonight the second tactic may pay an easier dividend.

Reid also has two maidens in Race 2 tonight and thinks it is the ideal race for Shake A Leg.

The three-year-old has run seven seconds and three thirds in 10 starts but the ace draw tonight should ensure he doesn’t has to leave the marker pegs and he is the master of his own destiny.

“It is quite a nice field but he worked really well on Tuesday and I think he is getting better,” explains Reid.

“So this really is his chance.

I know it sounds funny saying that about a horse who runs second all the time but he is working like he can win.”

Reid also has debutante Bazooka in the same race and says the big son of Bettors Delight has plenty to learn and is not as forward as his stablemate but is one to follow in a start or two.

Canterbury trotter Bet N Win is the $2 favourite to win the A$150,000 ($166,000) Great Square, the trotting feature for three and four-year-olds at Albion Park in Brisbane tomorrow night.

The four-year-old is an open classer in the making and overcame mid-race traffic issues to win his Australian debut last week against a similar field, suggesting he can come from the second line to win the 2138m mobile.

His biggest danger is NSW trotter London To A Brick, the defending champion who beat a stronger field in this race as a three-year-old last season.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.