STAR TRIO SET TO FIRE FOR CROSSLAND

By Matt Nicholls

21/06/2012

melbourneracing@gmail.com

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ANTHONY Crossland is your typical harness racing trainer.

He's low-key, no-frills and happy to fly under the radar.

But Crossland, who is based at Huntly, just north of Bendigo, won't be able to fly under the radar for much longer.

After a slow start to the year, the Crossland stable is expected to finish off with a bang.

The trainer/driver has assembled a crack team that is expected to peak as the harness racing calendar heats up.

Three horses likely to fly the flag for Crossland are The Bohemian, Rapid Art Beat and Bellingham.

The Bohemian won last year’s Victoria Trotters Derby at Maryborough and the NSW Trotters Derby at Menangle – both Group 1 races.

After winning the Victoria Trotters Derby, The Bohemian had the best part of a year off before resuming at Shepparton three weeks ago.

He ran last after galloping and breaking gear.

Ten days later he ran at Bendigo but galloped again, broke his sulky and didn’t finish the race.

They were two major setbacks for a horse that Crossland hopes can feature on the grand circuit.

“We just haven’t had much luck. His first run back he broke his head-check and then galloped,” Crossland said.

“Then in his second run the other night he sort of galloped in the same spot where he broke his head-check and once he got back trotting the sulky broke.

“I’m not sure what happened because it was close to a brand new sulky – one he virtually paid for after his wins last year.”

Crossland said The Bohemian would go back to the trials for a couple of runs before racing again.

“Once he gets out on that track he’s so competitive – he probably has a bit of white-line fever – so it’s my fault I didn’t take him to the trials first,” the trainer said.

“Once he starts trotting for a full race again he’ll be back to his best.”

Crossland said his trotter had grown significantly during his break and would continually improve this campaign.

“He’s such a big horse now and he probably gets too worked up when he’s fresh – we saw that in him last year as a three-year-old – so the longer his preparation goes the better he’ll get.”

One horse sure to get heads turning on the track this year is Rapid Art Beat.

A winner of this month’s Donald Pacing Cup at Charlton, the former New Zealander has plenty of ability.

Getting him to the track, however, has been the challenge.

“He’s had two starts here (in Australia) for two wins. The only problem is they were 10 months apart,” Crossland said.

Rapid Art Beat was a brilliant winner at Cranbourne in August last year when he had the toughest run in transit but still managed to win comfortably.

“It was a huge run,” Crossland said.

“We started from three-wide on the second line and then moved up three-wide to find the death seat and then a couple came around to give us cover. Then we led them up again in the turn for home and won by three or four metres.

“It was a tough win and he found the line quite well.

“He’s only pony-sized but he has a heart like bloody Phar Lap’s.”

Being tough doesn’t make you immune from problems, though.

Almost immediately after the Cranbourne win, Rapid Art Beat struck trouble.

“He got pretty sick and lost a lot of weight and went off his feed,” Crossland said.

“It took us a long time to work out what was wrong with him.

“My wife Emma, who works for the Eaglehawk Veterinary Clinic, took him on as a pet project to determine what the problem was.

“She spent hours on the net and researched American vets and eventually worked it out.”

As it turned out, Rapid Art Beat suffered from a mixture of problems.

“It’s mostly stomach-related stuff – ulcers and a form of acidosis – and one issue doesn’t help the other,” Crossland said.

“To Emma’s credit she’s on top of the problems and now we’re seeing the best of him.”

Crossland hopes to see Rapid Art Beat racing regularly at Melton and hopes he’ll develop into a country cups horse.

“He’s brilliant off the stand-start so that will put him in good stead in those country cups,” the trainer said.

“He’s about to turn seven but he only started racing when he was a four-year-old in New Zealand.

“He hasn’t had too many starts and at the moment he’s evergreen.

"I would say he's just thriving on being able to race at the moment."

The other Crossland runner that’s loving being back on the track is Bellingham, a three-quarter brother to The Bohemian, who had a two-year “retirement” before resuming his trotting career in April.

A promising squaregaiter as a juvenile – highlighted by a second in the NSW Trotters Derby in 2010 – Bellingham is back and looking brilliant again.

Bellingham has won four of his nine starts since returning from a badly bowed tendon and showed his ability last Friday night when running second in the first heat of the Melton Emerging Stars Trotters Handicap.

Bellingham was beaten convincingly, but stormed home from a long way back in what was a leader dominated race.

He’ll back up tomorrow night at Melton in the Group 3 final and should be hard to beat after drawing a front line position in the stand-start event.

A win would confirm that Crossland’s stable is out of its early year slumber and back firing.

Apart from the trainer, one man who would be happy to see the horses hit form is Adrian Spencer.

One of Crossland’s biggest clients, Spencer has a share in all three of the stable stars.

“He has a share in just about every horse I have,” Crossland said.

“He lives in Sydney and got into one of my horses with (harness racing broadcaster) Dan Mielicki a few years back and has stayed with me since.”

No doubt the pair are going to have plenty of fun in the upcoming months.