2009 Trotters Series
Melbourne, Vic

2009 Technyflex Inter Dominion Trotting Championship Final  $250,000 Qualifying Heats:  31 January 2009 (Ballarat) Final:  7 February 2009 (Moonee Valley, Melbourne)
Sundons Gift NZ gave Chris Lang back-to-back Inter Dominion titles on Saturday night as a trainer.  His success was even sweeter than last season with Galleons Sunset NZ because this was his first win as both trainer and driver in the biggest race on the trotting calendar, an event his father Graeme won twice and brother Gavin three times.    The race was set up for a fast time with the last half-mile in an amazing 56.6 seconds.  It was no surprise the mile rate of 1:59.7 easily lowered this trotter’s own track record for the distance in holding off One Over Kenny NZ and Whatsundermykilt NZ in a finish that had the crowd on its feet.    Lang will celebrate this victory by taking his wife Sharon to New Zealand for a week, a trip that might well decide whether he will take his smart trotter back to the land of its birth to contest the $NZ300,000 Rowe Cup on 1 May.   A top trotter missing from this field was the Kiwi star Stig NZ, the only rival likely to prevent Sundons Gift NZ from winning this season’s Barastoc Trotters Grand Circuit Championship.  He is now on 11 points, and Stig NZ 10.  The Rowe Cup is the last race on the 2008/2009 Trotters Grand Circuit to be decided. Swedish officials have been keenly following the major trots Down Under this season and an invitation has been issued to Lang to take his champion to Sweden to compete with the world’s best in the $800,000 Elitopp in Stockholm on 31 May.  Lang is a level-headed horseman with his feet firmly on the ground, though one would not have thought so with his extroverted display after Saturday night’s success.  Stewards took a dim view of him standing up in the sulky waving.  He was fined $1,000 for his display.		Sundons Gift NZ - 2009 Inter Dominion Trotting Champion

The man who is by far the most successful trainer of trotters in Australia in recent years has made no secret that he has an ambition to race a really good horse on the best European and American tracks.  

He is certain not to rush into making a decision, because it would mean leaving behind several good trotters in his stables in the midst of preparations for some major classics for two and three-year-olds. 

Neven Botica, owner of Sundons Gift NZ, has given Lang the green light if he wishes to race the horse in Europe, but the trainer-driver is unlikely to make a final decision soon.  

Because Sundons Gift NZ can be enigmatic and even injury prone under pressure, losing its gait more than once in recent starts, punters threw in heavily on Saturday for One Over Kenny NZ being the one to get the money.  Its latest form in New Zealand has been outstanding and consistent for big-race specialist Tony Herlihy. 

It was sent out the $1.90 favourite from Sundons Gift NZ ($4.50) and Whatsundermykilt NZ ($9.70) – with all other starters in double figures. This trio had the race between them a long way from home. 

Apart from Billy Royle making an early break, there were no hard luck stories from the big Final.  The first three to clock in ahead of the others simply outclassed their rivals. 

A jubilant Lang said after his win that it was difficult to accept his seven-year-old gelding had trotted so quickly for that last half – a time not bettered by many pacers.  

“He is a very good trotter, though if I was to tell you about just how much has gone into getting him right over the past year or two, we would be here all night,” he said. 

While Lang was not interested in any speed battle for the early lead from his favourable draw from two at the gate, he bided his time for almost a lap then swept up to take the lead where he could then dictate his own terms. 

Whatsundermykilt NZ was given every chance by Daryl Douglas, while One Over Kenny NZ in the last lap worked around the field to go up on the outside of the leader. 

The quarters of the last mile told the story with the first trotted in 31.1 seconds when Lang then started to slowly pour on the pressure, with the next quarter in 30.8 followed by a fast 28.0 seconds, sprinting home the last in 28.6 – a speed that top class pacers cannot not always achieve.  

When turning for home the last time, Sundons Gift NZ moved clear by six metres, and despite sterling efforts from its two Kiwi-owned rivals, Lang held on to win narrowly but clearly.  The gelding is by Sundon USA from Landoras Gift NZ.