LIKE most involved in Victorian harness racing, Chris Svanosio has plenty of reasons to be thankful for Graeme and especially Gavin Lang.
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It was the late Gavin Lang, who helped deliver the former Bendigo trainer-driver his first Group 1 win as a trainer, after steering Anywhere Hugo to victory in the Vicbred Super Series final for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings in 2018.
Svanosio will be forever grateful for Lang's sterling contribution on that night and would like nothing better than to be the first trainer and driver to add his name to the Gavin Lang Aldebaran Park Trotting Mile honour roll at Lord's Raceway on Friday night.
The race for two-year-old colts and geldings is one of two new Group 3 features on the 11-race program honouring the Lang family, alongside the Graeme Lang Aldebaran Park Trotting Mile for two-year-old fillies.
"I've grown up watching Gavin and my partner Elizabeth (MacLean) and her father Alastair, they own Anywhere Hugo, and they were great friends with Gavin for a long time," Svanosio said.
"It would be a great thrill to win it.
"It will be a great night being an all-trotters meeting. There are some nice entries and some really good trotters going around.
"The effort Duncan McPherson, from Aldebaran Park, puts into getting nights like this off the ground and getting these new races started and giving chances to the two-year-old trotters over the mile is fantastic.
"Most of the time you don't get a chance to see how quick the two-year-old trotters can go, but with Utopia in that race and Watts Up Majestic, you are hoping they might be able to run a two-year-old trotters Australian record."
Svanosio will launch a two-pronged attack on the race with Watts Up Majestic and Bullapark Beno.
Watts Up Majestic is backing up from his brilliant Group 1 victory in the Breeders Crown and, despite a tricky draw, has the potential to again be right in the finish.
Svanosio said the Majestic Son gelding had really come of age in the $100,000 final following a second in his heat 10 days earlier at Maryborough.
"He was fantastic, he drove past some pretty nice trotters and won like a really nice horse," he said.
"It was nice to get the first Group 1 Breeders Crown. I'd won a couple of four-year-old mares finals and a couple of trotters free-for-alls, but that was the first Group 1.
"And it was good to win it in style. Rickie Alchin had sent the horse down from Sydney because he couldn't travel because of the (COVID) restrictions and we'd had him here for a little while.
"He didn't make the Redwood, unfortunately, but he got going at the right time and really hit his straps in the Breeders Crown final."
Svanosio hinted that Friday night was likely to be the gelding's last start in Victoria before heading back home to New South Wales.
Bullapark Beno, to be driven by Michelle Phillips, is one of the outsiders of the nine-horse field, but has some claims on the strength of a breakout win at Lord's Raceway two starts back.
"It's a fair step up in class for him, but hopefully he can run into a bit of money in the finish," he said.
"He went well last start - he led and ran along well.
"But there's plenty of good ones in Friday night's race, so this will be a lot tougher."
Svanosio will have seven horses in total see action across the 11-race program, with the three-year-old trotting gelding Dels Destiny (race 11) and the former New Zealand filly Abundance (race 3) perhaps the pick of the chances.
He will be hoping for another successful return to Lord's Raceway after this week completing 12-months at his new base at Romsey.
Svanosio is delighted with how the move has played out.
"The Breeders Crown was our first Group 1 since we moved here, while Norquay ran a narrow second in one earlier in the year," he said.
"I think we're fifth on the metropolitan trainer's title for the season, so it's been a great year.
"Kyvalley Finn and Magicool were terrific earlier in the season in the country cups and we've had a lot of horses racing consistently and getting a few winners at Melton.
"COVID has been interesting for everyone and things weren't looking good earlier in the year, but we were very lucky to keep racing all the way through and get to a point where we have been able to get all these good races like the Breeders Crown and the Vicbred Series coming up off the ground."
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