Williams must place first or second to get in team

Photo: TRISH DUNELL

Winnies Central with Auckland mayor John Banks (left) and trainer Tony Barron after winning at Alexandra Park.

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Tim Williams must finish first or second in race six at Wyndham tomorrow to clinch a place in the New Zealand team for the Australasian Young Drivers' Championship.

He knows he has a good chance of winning with Yankee Dream in the PGG Wrightson AON Insurance Brokers Pace. The 2400m mobile event is for junior drivers.

Yankee Dream is a group one winning three-year-old and has improved since her third in a Nevele R Fillies' Heat at Blenheim on January 15.

"She didn't steer that good at Blenheim," Williams said yesterday.

The junior driver works for Yankee Dream's West Melton trainer, Robert Dunn, who has added pull down blinds to her gear for tomorrow's race.

Williams drove Yankee Dream in training yesterday.

"She worked well, felt pretty sharp."

Three drivers will represent New Zealand at the championship which is held in New South Wales. Venues and dates are: Menangle, March 2 (one heat); Penrith Paceway, March 4 (two heats); Harold Park, March 5 (one heat); Newcastle, March 6 (two heats); and Menangle, March 7 (final).

Points have been allocated to drivers in junior drivers' races. The top North Island (Roydon Downey) and South Island (Dexter Dunn) drivers represent New Zealand in the championship, along with the best UDR (strike-rate) driver.

Williams and Reon Tither, who left Invercargill last week to work for West Australian trainer John Graham, are in a battle for the UDR title.

If Williams and Yankee Dream don't finish in the first two tomorrow, Tither will join Dunn and Downey in the New Zealand team.

Winnies Central, to be reined by Nathan Williamson in tomorrow's junior drivers' race, ran second to Rakarebel in a one or more wins mobile at the Wyndham trials 10 days ago.

He was in the team Makarewa trainer Tony Barron campaign in Auckland last winter. Winnies Central had a profitable trip with two wins, a second and a fifth from four starts at Alexandra Park. The Live Or Die gelding will have his first four-year-old start tomorrow.

Three's Company, who finished third behind Rakarebel and Winnies Central at the Wyndham trials, makes his long awaited debut in the Southern Floor Care Pace.

Last season he won by 10 1/2 lengths in a maiden trial at Gore.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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