Sean Lithgow believes Dream Wizard’s coursing prowess will stand him in good stead in Saturday night’s RAM Locksmiths Cup Night Match Race (520m) at the Cranbourne Cup meeting.
Dream Wizard thrives on the competitive one-on-one nature of coursing, last year winning the Victoria Derby and Karen Leek Memorial, a trait he no doubt inherited from his mother Gotham Queen, a coursing sensation that was named Victoria’s finest female three times.
Dream Wizard is definitely no slouch on the racetrack either, winning 13 of his 36 starts and qualifying for the finals of both the Warragul and Ballarat Cups recently.
He narrowly missed out on his third country cup decider when edged out of second place in last Saturday’s Cranbourne Cup heat.
But while Dream Wizard won’t be going around in the Cup Final, he’s drawn box one in the Match Race where he’ll duel with the speedy Run Baba Run for $10,000 worth of consolation.
“He’s a very good coursing dog so he’s used to the one-on-one format,” said Sean Lithgow.
“You saw that last week when he and Yozo Bale were going with each other. You had two top dogs battling and battling until one gets the lead.
“That was his first go at 500m and first time on a two-turn track in a race but we thought he’d be competitive and he was. The dog is going super.
“Obviously, Run Baba Run is very quick early so hopefully Dream Wizard can hold the inside.
“I think whoever leads will probably win the race. We’ll know in the first 100m but Dream Wizard was able to lead Yozo Bale last week so that’s going pretty quick!”
The Match Race would become even more intriguing for the Lithgow family if first reserve Gotham Duke, a litter brother to Dream Wizard, trained by Sean’s wife Mel, happened to gain a start.
“We were just talking about that,” quipped Sean.
“Gotham Duke is the faster dog but Dream Wizard is a better railer and two-turn dog we think.
“There’s really nothing between them so it would be very interesting if they were to race against each other.”
The Match Race is race 9 on Saturday, to jump at 8.40pm.
