Addington card stacked with smart three-year-olds

By Jonny Turner

 A sensational line up of three-year-olds will provide a mouth-watering entre for punters at Addington on Friday night ahead of the beginning of the Sires Stakes Series.

Sires Stakes eligible pacers Skippy’s Delight, Tyron's Bit Of Lemon, Somekindawonderful and Above N Beyond will battle with fellow 3yr-olds Willison and Im A Gigolo and older pacers Letterkenny Boy, Lets Hustle and Givemewhatineed in a brilliant rating 52-59 event over 1980m.

Skippy’s Delight will warm up for next week’s first South Island Sires Stakes Series heat when he starts from barrier 2 in the line up of emerging stars.

Though next week’s race is his main aim, trainer Brendon Hill is hopeful Skippy’s Delight can run a big race.

“I'd like to think he'd be top three or go really the race.”

“He has got a good draw and he has got gate speed.”

“He can be up handy on the speed.”

Skippy’s Delight scored back-to-back wins after running in to major traffic problems and going to the line under a hold by driver Ricky May, behind One Change at the Harness Jewels.

The Art Major pacer led in both of his wins and is likely to be on the speed again, on Friday.

However, Hill is hopeful the horse will get the opportunity to show off more of his skill set soon.

“He's won his last two in front and Ricky and I hope he will be better in behind.”

“We haven't been to do that and I don't know if we'll get a chance to do that on Friday night.”

“But, let's hope is another dimension to them that we haven't used.”

Skippy’s Delight has tuned up for his return to racing with two Rangiora trials.

The 3yr-old was off the pace in a leader dominated heat in his first attempt.

Skippy’s Delight then impressed when sweeping around the field to beat a quality line up including race rival, Above N Beyond, and group 1 performer, Flying Even Bettor.

Bookmakers rated Im A Gigolo the hardest horse to beat when making 3yr-old the $2.60 favourite on market opening.

The Cran Dalgety and Nathan Purdon trained pacer won his debut by more than nine lengths before scoring a comfortable length victory against a field of largely race hardened older horses in his second start.

Trainer Robert Dunn has a powerful hand in the race with debutante winners Tyron's Bit Of Lemon, Somekindawonderful and former smart 2yr-old, Above N Beyond.

Above N Beyond stormed home wide on the track to reel off a smart last 400m when running in to second in Skippy’s Delight’s trial win.

Tyron's Bit Of Lemon and Somekindawonderful will both step up sharply in grade after clearly maidens nicely in their first starts to the races.

The Mark Jones trained Willison adds more depth to Friday night’s race.

The 3yr-old fought on for second behind Kiwis Are Flying in his first start for six weeks at Addington last week.

All Stars pacer Letterkenny Boy heads the older brigade taking on the race’s smart 3yr-olds.

The Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen trained pacer finished ahead of Skippy’s Delight at the trials before going on to win another heat, last week.

The 10 race Addington card is stacked with smart 3yr-olds.

Arden's Reality , Pur Dan, and Gilligans Island go head to head in race 1.

On A Roll, Diamond Party and A Delightful act clash in race 3.

Smart All Stars pacer Aqua Sancta will battle older horses in race 10.