B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets

Bennie And The Jets (Quaker Jet) hung on by the barest of margins to win his fourth race for harness racing trainer Coaster Howe at Addington today (Apr. 28).

Regular pilot Robbie Close got the gelding (named after the Elton John song), away well and he lead for the entire trip, hanging on to beat Jimmy Carter (The Pres) by a nose.

“He’s not a horse that’s going to win by a big margin and he tends to wait for the other horses. With the way he’s been trotting we haven’t been able to get good racing into him to improve his fitness so I think he will improve,” Close said.

After winning two of his first three starts as a three year old, and running fourth in the Hambletonian and sixth in the New Zealand Derby, his form dropped away.

“He went out for a bit of a break to fill into his frame because he’s a bigger horse. Coaster has tried different steering gear on him, but he hasn’t been trotting that well round the bends. We’ve gone back to using a pole and a gaiting strap and he steered beautiful tonight.”

BENNIE AND THE JETS REPLAY

Bennie And The Jets is out of Ugly Betty (Earl) whose dam is the Chiola Hanover mare Niamey. She’s left Sun Of Anarchy (28), Springbank Sam (20), Daenerys Targaryen (15) Pocaro (13) and the promising three year old Southern Diamond (Creatine) so it’s an excellent family. In total Niamey has left the winners of ninety four races.

Ugly Betty was bred by the late Gary Allen but is now owned by prominent SBSR breeder Dave Kennedy.

Bennie And The Jets was offered by Kennedy at the 2020 NZB Standardbred Sale in Christchurch and was purchased for $22,000.

“This time in he’s a lot more filled out. He should make his way nicely through the grades. It’s bloody hard coming up against those very good ones but he won’t disgrace himself in that next grade.” 

Ugly Betty has a two year old named Mode (Trixton) which ran second on debut for Brad Mowbray and a yearling En Solitaire filly which is owned by Macca Lodge.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink