Ahern runners hold key to quaddie

Hatrick Raceway PHOTO/FILE

Palmerston North trainer Lisa Ahern holds a strong hand in three of the first three legs in this evening's TAB Quaddie at Hatrick.

Ahern is challenging the domination of John McInerney, the perennial greyhound trainers premiership winner.

Going into yesterday's racing McInerney held a 95 to 92 lead over Ahern.

In tonight's first Quaddie leg race 9, 8.15pm Ahern will load imported Aussie chaser Armed Forces into trap-four.

He is a talented chaser, as seen at Cambridge last Friday when he demolished a handy field when making his New Zealand race debut.

A repeat of that effort should see him taking out this dash.

Foxton trainers Paul Freeman and Angela Turnwald are likely to provide the toughest opposition.

Eureka Izmir has produced sound recent sprints, as has kennelmate Moulin Blue.

In leg two, the smart Ahern trained Ritza Jack looms as the chaser to beat.

He has posted slick 520m times here, including a flying 29.69s last week.

Kennelmate Renee Ranger is a sound back-up prospect. Forget his luckless last Cambridge outing when he was impeded.

Again it is the Freeman and Turnwald partnership look set to lodge the biggest challenge.

Ate To Much is a strong chaser and he has drawn trap one. Another from the same kennel is Pink Sock, who has raced generously here before.

The third leg sees the sharp looking Ahern-mentored sprinter Allegro Star being a sound prospect. Her New Zealand debut win was here two sprints ago.

Rosemore Osti is a proven Ahern-trained sprinter who has drawn ideally for her preferred racing style, as she seeks her 38th victory in her 100th race.

Another kennel member Cosmic Fury will have his supporters here.

Freeman and Turnwald loom as the biggest dangers with the promising Nitro Luis, while making his open class sprinting debut.

In the final Quaddie leg, Freeman and Turnwald appear to hold the upper hand with the slippery sprinter Secret Star.

Two sprints ago she demolished a handy Auckland field in a feature sprint final.

Kennelmate Secret Sprite enjoys an improved draw while the Ahern prepared Fiery Dancer is capable of slipping around the outer from her wide trap. Waterbug brings tidy one trap statistics into this dash for his Fielding trainer Lana Udy.