Keayang Zahara may not race again before the $530,000 Trot Slot

Champion Aussie trotting mare Keayang Zahara (Volstead) may not race again before the $530,000 Trot Slot at Cambridge on April 10.

Connections are considering Saturday night’s Terang Trotters’ Cup, but harness racing driver Jason Lee said it was more likely she would miss the race given it a standing start and Keayang Zahara would be off a 30m handicap.

“We haven’t made a final decision and we would dearly love to run her at our home track, but it may not be the right thing so close to the (NZ) trip,” he said.

“If she didn’t run, we could still take her in for a workout between races so she’s part of the night (Terang Cup night).”

Lee said the Keayang Zahara had travelled home well and enjoyed a quiet week since her sparkling Group 1 Hammerhead Mile win at Menangle just over a week ago.

It was her 27th win from 28 starts and she equalled the Australasian mile trotting record at 1min51.5sec.

“If I’d have asked her a bit earlier, we might have broken the record instead of equalling it,” Lee laughed.

“She came home with Paddy (Lee) and Harry (Craven) and they said she travelled really well and we’ve given her a quiet time since. We’ll start to crank her up again this week.”

Lee said travel plans for Keayang Zahara and Jilliby Ballerini would be finalised this week.

“Paddy’s working through it and being Easter makes it a bit trickier, but it looks like they’ll go over a week before the race, so they won’t race over there before the big one,” he said.

“For Keayang Zahara it will almost certainly be just a one race trip, but there is a chance ‘Ballerino’ could stay on for a couple of those other big trotting races in Auckland. We’ll play that by ear and see how she is after the Cambridge run.”

Lee’s cousin, Glen Craven, will drive Jilliby Ballerini.

Asked whether Jilliby Ballerini could upset Keayang Zahara, Lee said: “It’s possible, but every time you think the gap might be closing, ‘Zahara’ does something special and reminds you how good she is.

“I’d say if they clashed 50 times, Zahara would win 48 or 49 of them.”

Jilliby Ballerini, who has chased Keayang Zahara in the Great Southern Star and Hammerhead in recent starts, is likely to tackle the Terang Trotters’ Cup.

“I’d say so. She’s raced from a stand and it makes more sense to run her,” Lee said.

Jilliby Ballerini has won her only two Australian standing-start races and ran a desperately unlucky fourth to Gus from a stand in the Dominion Trot at Addington on November 11, last year.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing New Zealand