Keayang Zahara with Jason and Marg Lee. Photo courtesy HRNZ
MARG Lee can attest to the saying “when you’re hot, you’re hot.”
Still basking in the thrill of Keayang Zahara’s three-peat thrashing of NZ’s best young trotters, Lee will gear-up quarter of the field in Saturday night’s Group 1 Inter Dominion trotting final.
What’s most remarkable is that the Victorian bush trainer – from Ecklin South, near Terang - has never had a runner in the race before, although she did have Keayang Cullen finish 11th and eighth respectively in the 2013 and ’14 Inter Dominion pacing finals.
For her son Jason, who drove Keayang Zahara with such poise in her recent NZ romps, this will be his first drive in any Inter Dominion final when he teams with the family’s top hope, Keayang Chucky, a $5 chance from gate three.
“It’s been an amazing year, especially these past few months,” Marg Lee said. “You’ve got to pinch yourself to get a trotter like Keayang Zahara. We’ve been in the game a long time and done the hard yards and to have her come along is a dream.
“Now, as she goes out for a spell, the others step up and give us three in this (Inter Dominion) final. Just getting one in would’ve been terrific, but three is amazing. All credit to Paddy (Lee, Marg’s son), he’s done all the work with them in Sydney and they’ve all thrived.
“Keayang Chucky is our best hope, especially from the draw. Jase will drive him.
“Will (Rixon) will drive our second pick, Paddy will work that out with him, then we’ll offer Lochie Cook the other drive. He deserves that with all the work he’s done at home.”
Rixon, a NSW young gun and family friend of the Lee’s, did the stable driving in the first two rounds heats while Jason Lee focused on Keayang Zahara in NZ.
That family tie with Rixon flows into the pacing final.
The Lee and Craven clan own former star juvenile, Jilliby Nitro, who is enjoying a renaissance in the care of Rixon’s father, Peter, who won the 2008 Miracle Mile with Divisive after the pacer ran second to the great Blacks A Fake in the Moonee Valley Inter Dominion final earlier the same year.
“We left ‘Nitro’ up with the Rixons after we campaigned him and Keayang Zahara up there earlier in the year because he seemed to like the track so much,” Marg Lee said.
“It’s been a great move. They’ve done such a super job with him and he’s been terrific through the series. It’ll be harder again in the final, but he’s got the draw (gate one) to run a cheeky race.”
Jilliby Nitro has been $16 into $9 with TAB since the barrier draw.
Saturday night will be 23-year-old Rixon’s first Inter Dominion final drive in a career which has netted almost 700 wins, but just one at Group 1 level.
