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Monday, February 6, 2012

I Can Doosit Captures the Final Trotting Inter Dominion

I Can Doosit NZ, captured his second straight A$250,000 Trotting Inter Dominion at Tabcorp Park Melton in Victoria, Australia, winning the 2,760 metre race in 3:26.5 (2:00.4 mile rate) over the good track, winning by 5.3 metres.  This 6 year old gelded son of Muscles Yankee out of the New Zealand mare Sheezadoosie followed The Fiery Ginga NZ at the start of the bell lap (the final lap) and went by them in the passing lane.



With the Kiwi horses taking the five top spots of the Inter Dominion final (they took the top three spots in the consolation), you can imagine the Australians are glad to say good bye to the trotting Inter Dominion which the Australian and New Zealand racing authorities had decided to eliminate.  For those of us in North America, don't expect I Can Doosit to be showing up to race anytime soon; Trainer/Driver Mark Purdon has ruled out racing outside of Australasia as I Can Doosit has a horrible gait; one that he likely would not be able to get by outside of the Southern Hemisphere.

But anyway, you know the answer to a trivia question.  Who won the final Inter Dominion Trot?  His name was I Can Doosit.

Other significant winners on the Inter Dominion Card were pacers: Scandalman NZ won the A$200,000 Victoria Derby Final (locate race 6 and click on the replay) for 3yos by 12 meteres.  The 3yo son of the American sire Live or Die won the 2,240 metre race in a mile rate of 1:57.5.   In the $425,000 A G Hunter Cup (race 8), Choise Achiever NZ completed the Grade 1 sweep for New Zealand defeating Auckland Reactor NZ (yes, that Auckland Reactor) by half a head (race 8).  The winning time for the standing start race of 3,280 metres was 4:04.4 (mile rate 1:59.9). 

Interesting Fact: The first six positions of the Hunter Cup were New Zealand horses, while the top two finishers in the Victoria Derby were Kiwis as well.  I guess that explains why there are few Australian horses imported to North America and the majority of imports are New Zealand-bred horses.    Based on these three Class 1 races, it appears New Zealand has a definite advantage over the Aussies when it comes to breeding race horses.

You can't tell me this card would not have been interesting for North Americans to wager on.  Yes, the 16 hour time difference may be something to overcome (perhaps shifting the start time in Australia?), but there definitely would have been interest

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