Astute New South Wales harness racing horseman Dean Cernovskis is heading north.

With winter chills fast approaching, Cernovskis will campaign a team of nine pacers in sunny Queensland over the coming months spearheaded by talented former New Zealand filly BB’s Inspiration.

Based at Gunning in the southern highlands of New South Wales, Cernovskis will target several features during the Brisbane winter carnival including the Oaks features with his filly.

Cernovskis will be based at Tweed Heads during his northern campaign.

“We’re not complete strangers to Queensland because over the past couple of years we have sent several of our horses north and they’ve been cared for by Vicki Rasmussen and Shane Graham, they’ve done a great job but we’ve decided to do it ourselves this year.” Cernovskis said.

And Cernovskis is heading north with a solid team.

Cernovskis will arrive next Tuesday (May 5) and have a team of eight to start with while the filly BB’s Inspiration will arrive later following her let-up after a recent Melbourne campaign.

Headlining his team will be Scotlynn Jiggs, a former New Zealand pacer who is unbeaten in two local starts and will target several rich intermediate grade events.

Heats of the Gr.2 $50,000 C2/C5 Carnival Cups series is scheduled for Saturday week while the final is slated for May 16.

“I think he’s a pretty fair horse and I’m hopeful he can do a good job up there, the prizemoney for that grade of horse is sensational. That’s the reason we’re heading up so soon, we wanted to target this $50,000 series before looking at other options in the coming months.

“He’s been impressive in his two victories since joining my team and I trialed him yesterday (Tuesday) at Menangle and he went very well beating some well above average pacers and running a good last quarter. I think Scottlyn Jiggs and BB’s Inspiration are my two best horses in my care.

“I’ve also got Valastro coming up because he’s eligible for the QBRED Triad 4yo feature; he’s a nice little horse that’s doing a good job. He’ll start on Friday at Menangle before we head up next week.”

Other horses that will campaign in Brisbane in the coming months include Harlequin Bromac, HezBuyinDiamonds, Long Hot Summer, Alta Capone, Here’s Rommel and Just Enzo.

“I think I’ve got the right mix of horses to take up and hopefully we can earn some money, Queensland racing is very competitive and expecting strong competition, it will only get harder as the carnival approaches.

“BB’s Inspiration will join the team in the coming weeks; she’s just having a let-up following her Victoria Oaks campaign which clearly didn’t go to plan. We’ve pinpointed a few problems and hopefully she’ll show her best form in Brisbane, I really like this filly.”

– CHRIS BARSBY