Todd with strong hand in junior drivers' race

By Jonny Turner

Regan Todd admits there is little between his pairing of Baileys Pitch and Theresa Love in today’s junior drivers' event at Ashburton.

The in-form duo have landed in contrasting draws for the 2400m mobile with Baileys Pitch to start from barrier 1, inside Theresa Love who has barrier 7.

Race markets suggest Theresa Love ($2.50) has the edge over Baileys Pitch ($5.50) and while Todd agrees in principle, there may be less between the two than those prices suggest.

“Going by their work on Saturday, I couldn’t really split them,” Todd said.

“Baileys Pitch trained good and I would say he is definitely a good first four chance but out of the two of them Theresa Love is probably the better winning chance.”

Theresa Love is closing in on a win after producing consistent form.

The mare has never missed a top four placing and she went down narrowly in her last start at Motukarara.

“You would love to own her, she is just a wee ATM machine.”

“Carter (Dalgety) drove her perfect last week, she just got nabbed on the line.”

“She seems to be getting better with each run fitness-wise.”

“If you swap the draws around you would probably be more confident with her.”

“She is just going to need a little bit of luck from 7.”

Baileys Pitch also comes into race 6 today on the back of a last start second.

The gelding closed off nicely on the back of what Todd initially thought was an ordinary fifth placing.

“I was disappointed with his fifth, but when I saw they went a 1.53 mile-rate he probably didn’t go that bad.”

“His last start at Rangiora, he put his best foot forward and beat some not-bad ones home.”

“It was a good second.”

“Going by the draw (1), that is going to help him.”

“In those junior races usually someone gets a bit excited, so hopefully he will be snuck away on the fence somewhere.”

Andrew Fitzgerald drives Baileys Pitch with Mark Hurrell to drive Theresa Love.