You Champion Lazarus - 15 Group ones

Three days before Lazarus produced one of the greatest harness racing performances seen in Victoria his trainer Mark Purdon was worried.

Last night he shook his head and admitted he should have known better.

Lazarus continued his surge up the leaderboard of harness racing’s all-time greats with a thrashing of many of Australasia’s elite pacers in the $500,000 Del-Re National A. G. Hunter Cup, clipping a full second off the track record mile rate for 2760m set last season.

He did it after losing an early speed, being forced to sit parked and having any doubts about his fitness after a recent soreness issues tested to the extreme.

And he also did it three days after being smashed in track work by his own stablemate Heaven Rocks, who himself was a brave and luckless third last night.

“I’ll admit on Wednesday I was worried,” said a beaming Purdon, who trains Lazarus with Natalie Rasmussen.

“I shouldn’t have been. When it comes to race night Laz knows. He knows what it is about and knows to get serious.

“He did all that work and they tell me he broke the track record, he is just an incredible horse.”

After being forced to miss the West Australia Cup two weeks ago because of his hoof concussion issues, Lazarus lived up to his name and Purdon admits it is one of the most satisfying wins of his Hall of Fame career.

But Lazarus still had one jewel in harness racing’s crown to secure, the $750,000 Miracle Mile at Menangle on February 24 to confirm his coronation.

He will contest a prelude there on February 17 and Purdon has no concerns about the hoof soreness returning.

“He will be fine. He recovered from that pretty quickly so I don’t have any concerns going to Sydney.”

Lazarus is now Australasian harness racing’s third richest earner and while he has over $1million to go to catch Blacks A Fake, the indications are he will race on next season rather than going to stud. He could retire then the richest and maybe even the best we have seen here.

The beaten drivers behind him produced some stunners last night and Greg Sugars couldn’t have driven brave runner-up Soho Tribeca any better but most were left shaking their heads after chasing the wonder horse.

 “My horse went great and I was happy enough with my drive but really what can you do against that?” asked Sugars.

Trots Media – Michael Guerin