Three of Bendigo’s most consistent gallopers look set to fight out the Bendigo Horse of the Year title.
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The awards for the 2016-17 season will be presented this Saturday night and the stable stars of three leading Bendigo trainers will be hard to beat.
The Shane Fliedner-trained In Fairness enjoyed a career-best campaign in 2016-17.
The bold frontrunner had 13 starts for the season for three wins and three placings.
The six-year-old gelding won two races at Moonee Valley at benchmark 64 and 70 level and earned just shy of $94,000 in stakemoney.
The Kym Hann-trained Glenrowan Prince lived up to the trainer’s expectations when he won four of his nine starts for the season.
Two of Glenrowan Prince’s wins were at benchmark 70 level, while the other two were at benchmark 78 standard.
The highlight of his season was a Saturday metropolitan win at Caulfield in a benchmark 78 over 1100m.
Glenrowan Prince earned $91,500 for the season.
Shaun Dwyer prepared talented filly Savaju to win three races from 10 starts.
The Kiwi-bred filly started her season by breaking her maiden at Bendigo and by the end of May she’d added two further wins at Bendigo at benchmark 64 and 70 level as well as running third at Flemington in a benchmark 78. Savaju’s season earned connections $67,750.
Awards for five categories will also be presented on the night.
In the best two-year-old award the finalists are the Allen Browell-trained Star Hills, Brendon Hearps-trained Lonberg and the Rod Symons-prepared Crash Cranach.
Star Hills is the only one of the three horses to win a race after it thrashed its rivals in a maiden at Donald.
In the best three-year-old award, the finalists are Savaju, the brian Gentle-trained Magnarock and the Gus Philpot-trained She’s Beneficial.
One of the most intriguing sections is the premier sprinter up to 1400m award.
All of Glenrowan Prince’s wins were at 1000m and 1100m, while two of In Fairness’ victories were in this category.
The other finalist is the Brendon Hearps-trained Go Down. The mare was impressive in winning two sprint races from four starts, including a benchmark 70 victory at Moonee Valley.
In Fairness is also a finalist in the middle distance award.
In Fairness won over a mile at Moonee Valley, ran third at Echuca in a benchmark 78 and also ran fifth in the Listed Lord Stakes at Caulfield.
The Josh Julius-trained Dubai King had a breakout season, winning over a mile at Moonee Valley and Bendigo.
The third finalist is the Kym Hann-trained Inner Strength, which won two races at Swan Hill.
The Rod Symons-trained Savannah Moon looks to have a mortgage on the premier stayer award after she won the Think Big Cup Club at Swan Hill, ran second at Flemington and was third in the Pinker Pinker Plate.
The other finalists are the Danny Curran-trained Welcome Stryker and the Brian Gentle-prepared Star Zone.