TAB Eureka Watch - Slot owners Danny & Jo Zavitsanos
THE boom on lightly raced four-year-old High Above must be something special.
The half-brother to former freakish pacer Ride High is kept safe in early markets for the TAB Eureka, despite having raced just four times and not since a Ballarat win on August 18, last year.
But the best pointer to his untapped potential comes from rival owners Danny and Jo Zavitsanos.
The leviathan Geelong-based owners could have easily snapped-up his own dual Group 1 winner Petracca for their own “Team Zav” slot in the TAB Eureka. Instead they are holding-off, because of High Above.
“High Above is largely the reason why,” Zavitsanos said. “Most people expect we’ll take Petracca, but it’s not a given.
“Clayton (Tonkin) has a huge opinion of High Above and we’ve also got Oliver Dan, who we think has come back really well.
“The easy option would have been for us to lock-in Petracca a while back and be done with it, but we’re here to try and win the TAB Eureka, so it makes sense to wait.”
Petracca, named after the sidelines AFL superstar Christian Petracca, boasts a fantastic record with 11 wins from just 14 starts, including the Group 1 Victoria Derby at his most recent start on October 14, last year.
Wins in a heat and final of the Derby silenced the doubters who said the compactly built Petracca was just a speedster.
“He’s close to racing again, but so is High Above,” Zavitsanos said. “I’d like to see them both have a race and then make our decision.
“Jo and I will certainly be guided by Clayton. If he says High Above is clearly the better chance of winning the TAB Eureka, then we will go with him.”
Both High Above and Petracca won 1720m trials at Melton yesterday (Tuesday) and posted very similarly slick mile rates.
High Above beat two moderate rivals by a huge space in a 1min55.8sec mile rate, dashing home in 55.2 and 27.1sec.
Petracca had much stronger opposition for his four metre win in a 1min55.1sec mile rate, closing out in 55.2 and 26.9sec.
High Above galloped at his first start at Cobram on May 11, last year and has since won races at Bendigo, Melton and Ballarat.
There’s no doubting his potential, but it would be a fascinating challenge to see him against such an elite and experienced group of four-year-olds in the world’s richest harness racing, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka, at Menangle on September 7.