By Adam Hamilton
Australia's newest slot race is certainly stirring huge early interest.
The inaugural $500,000 Ladbrokes Protostar for two-year-old pacers is still four months away, but it’s the first thing on most trainers’ tongues when they snare a juvenile winner.
It really started to gain momentum when Victorian trainer-driver Damien Burns declared the new feature a major target for his exciting juvenile Hesitate after he made it two wins from as many starts at Melton on March 2.
A week later, Robbie Morris turned the conversation to the Protostar in the moments after his upset win for wife KerryAnn aboard Hezatreacherous in the Group 3 Sapling Stakes on Miracle Mile night (March 9).
The it was leviathan Queensland owner Kevin Seymour, who also happens to own Leap To Fame, who joined the Protostar chorus after his exciting Always B Miki colt Fate Awaits thrashed his rivals on debut at Albion Park last Tuesday.
“We’re open to offers. Grant (Dixon, trainer-driver) and I have a good opinion of this youngster and the Protostar is a logical target,” Seymour said.
The Protostar adds another dimension to Queensland’s biggest meeting of the year on July 27, which also features the $400,000 Group 1 Ladbrokes Blacks A Fake, the $150,000 Ladbrokes Queensland Derby, $150,000 Ladbrokes Queensland Oaks and the $100,000 Pryde’s Easifeed Queensland Trotters’ Cup.