Tapdog’s trainer casts eye towards Perth start
By NOEL McCULLOCH
GERALDTON Cup winner Tapdog made a triumphant return to racing when he narrowly won the 1300m Northcoast Holding Sprint at Utakarra on Saturday.
Tapdog trainer Clive Lauritsen plans to race the five-year old gelding once more in Geraldton before taking him to Perth for an assault on some staying races.
"We'll start him once more here and then see how things go," Lauritsen said.
"We don't have a specific plan for him yet but he wouldn't win any short races in Perth. He only just scraped in on the weekend and that was when he was fresh so he'd need a longer distance in Perth.
"We need to get him solid up here before heading down."
Tapdog, who opened at 4/6 drifted in betting to start 5/4 favourite ahead of Tammarman (7/4-2) was in fifth position behind Barclay's Gold, as the field sorted themselves out.
Approaching the 800m Backburner had worked his way to the front from Colorado River, Family Pleasure, Barclay's Gold, Iron Buffalo and Mr Scatman with Tapdog camped on the rails in a compact field.
