John\u00a0Singleton has pinned his hopes on exciting three-year-old Hesitate to give him back-to-back wins in the world\u2019s richest harness race.<\/p>\n
Hesitate, part-owned and formerly trained in Victoria by Damien Burns and Scott Petrie, was confirmed in Singleton\u2019s $2.1mil TAB Eureka slot today (Tuesday).<\/p>\n
It came after Hesitate ran a terrific second to star Kiwi pacer Rubira in last Saturday night\u2019s Group 1 Queensland Derby at Albion Park.<\/p>\n
Insiders say there was strong competition from a rival slot owner to secure Hesitate.<\/p>\n
Singleton teamed with champion trainer-driver Luke McCarthy to win last year\u2019s TAB Eureka with subsequent Inter Dominion and Miracle Mile winner Don Hugo.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team think Hesitate is a horse on the up at the right time and that it\u2019s a year where the three-year-olds can win the TAB Eureka,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBay Of Biscay got close last year and the belief is this three-year-old crop is even stronger than last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was exciting to win the race (TAB Eureka) in just its second year last year and we would love to go back and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The TAB Eureka is restricted to three and four-year-old Australian-bred pacers, but a three-year-old is yet to win it.<\/p>\n
The Emma Stewart-trained Bay Of Biscay came closest last year when he flew home late for second to Don Hugo.<\/p>\n
For McCarthy, Hesitate\u2019s slot gives him the chance to remain unbeaten in the TAB Eureka. He drove the Emma Stewart-trained Encipher to win in 2023 and won with Don Hugo last year.<\/p>\n
Hesitate has raced just 23 times for 11 wins and five seconds.<\/p>\n
He ran second to exciting Kiwi pacer Rubira in last Saturday night\u2019s Group 1 Queensland Derby at Albion Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled this horse (Hesitate) is in. I never doubted he\u2019d get a slot, he\u2019s so good, but it\u2019s great to have it confirmed so we can just focus on the best pathway to the race now rather than having to prove anything to anyone,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a genuine winning chance in a race like the TAB Eureka. He\u2019s got so much speed and the preferential draws the three-year-olds get is a big factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll have a few easy days after the Derby run and then we\u2019ll have a look for the most suitable lead-up races between now and the Eureka. He\u2019ll be an even better horse by then than he is now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hesitate\u2019s managing owner Mick Harvey added: \u201cWe were already well advanced in talks with Singo\u2019s team and they obviously liked what they saw in the Derby.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuke\u2019s got a huge opinion of this horse and each run is a learning curve. He should be right where we want home by TAB Eureka night.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs many have said, there\u2019s a bit of a question mark on the depth of the four-year-olds this year, while we know this is a really strong batch of three-year-olds and Hesitate is clearly one of the best of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also super exciting to team with somebody like Singo, who has done so much for racing and been a huge supporter of the TAB Eureka from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
PHOTO: Dan Costello<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John\u00a0Singleton has pinned his hopes on exciting three-year-old Hesitate to give him back-to-back wins in the world\u2019s richest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-14864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}