Racing: Injuries shatter stable's feature dreams

Eridanus runs a gallant second at Alexandra Park this year. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey.

You would think there could be few things worse for a trainer than driving your stable star when he breaks down days before a big race.

But Gareth Dixon can think of one thing worse - if somebody else had been driving him.

The Auckland trainer has been left gutted after his exciting 2-year-old Eridanus broke down, meaning he will miss his main aim for the season, the $300,000 PGG Sales Series Pace at Addington this Saturday.

After looking a star early in the season, Eridanus convinced Dixon he was coming back to his best with a brilliant trial at Addington last week.

And with the best two juveniles in the country - Kotare Mach and Stormy Sirocco - not eligible for Saturday's race, Dixon was adamant Eridanus was the horse to beat.

"But I went down to drive him on Sunday morning and he wasn't right at the end of his workout," he explained.

"I pulled him up straight away and it looks like he has a hairline fracture somewhere because his leg is quite sore.

"The only thing that could have made it worse is if I hadn't gone down because you would hate that to happen to somebody else who was looking after him and driving him.

"At least the way it happened we know it is nobody's fault."

Eridanus will now need an enforced spell and will miss the rest of the season, putting him out of $700,000 worth of races in the next month alone.

His injury capped a terrible weekend for Dixon, with his outstanding mare Lizzie Maguire curbing a hock, meaning she will definitely miss the Harness Jewels on May 30.

To make matters worse, Eridanus would have been one of the favourites on Saturday had he drawn the front line as most of the big names left in the race have drawn the second line.

Both Smiling Shard and Courage To Rule will start from there, while there are still doubts over Anvils Best Ever, who has been sick since winning the Cardigan Bay Stakes in March.

The country's richest juvenile event is the highlight of a huge Addington meeting which sees the next round in the battle of the outstanding 3-year-old pacing fillies in the $150,000 Nevele R Final.

Warm favourite Lauraella faces the toughest test of her stellar season after drawing the second line in the 1950m event, while arch-rival Joyfuljoy has drawn perfectly at barrier three.

That could see Joyfuljoy push Lauraella for favouritism, even though the latter has been awesome this season.

On a day of features, last weekend's costly Rangiora failure Monkey King will clash with top mare Kiwi Ingenuity in the free-for-all.

There could not have been a more fitting winner of New Zealand's first tote amateur driving race yesterday.

Steve Phillips, who along with his wife Anne, was instrumental in setting up amateur driving in New Zealand, trained and drove the well-backed Cipolletti to win the first amateur race to have tote betting.

The Alexandra Park race, which wasn't greatly different to view than any other harness race, was the culmination of a six-year dream for Phillips and the dedicated band of amateur drivers in the north.

And, ironically, it attracted the biggest field of yesterday's minor meeting.