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Hard Yaga to give punters some early cheer at the Sunshine Coast.

16 November 2018

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By Glenn Davis

Punters have been handed a strong guide for an early return on their investments at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.

Trainer Daryl Hansen will have three runners at the meeting and believes Hard Yaga will be hard to beat in the male’s division of the QTIS Three-Year-Old Maiden Plate (1000m).

His others starters are Magnetite in the Shine Building Maiden Handicap (1800m) and Lavington Star in the SMS Finance Benchmark 65 Handicap (1400m).

“Hard Yaga is my best and he should be very hard to beat if he reproduces his first run,” Hansen said.

Hard Yaga, a son of Publishing, was an unlucky second on debut behind the Chris Anderson-trained Epic Girl in a 1000-metre Maiden at the Sunshine Coast two weeks ago.

Hansen, who has a team of 28 horses in work at Caloundra, believes Hard Yaga will eventually measure up to Saturday city grade.

“I think he’s the type of horse who will make a city Saturday horse if he continues to improve,” Hansen said.

“He was bred by Helen Yeates who lives in Brisbane but she’s got a small farm at Toowoomba and is a hobby breeder.

“She’s bred a lot of horses and I’ve trained quite a few for her over the last year.”

Hard Yaga is ineligible for the Magic Millions at the Gold Coast in January but Hansen is content to chase the lucrative QTIS prizemoney with him.

“The QTIS prizemoney is good and he’ll keep aiming for these types of races for the time being,” he said.

“He was very unlucky here at his first start when he ran on the heels of a runner in the straight and was inconvenienced.

“Then at the 150 metres he dipped and almost came down and he only just got beaten.”

Hansen is also hopeful Magnetite and Lavington Star will be highly competitor.

Magnetite was beaten almost 10 lengths when fifth on debut over 1400 metres at the Sunshine Coast two weeks ago while Lavington Star was successful over 1400 metres the same day.

“Magnetite is a one pacer and that’s why I’m stepping him up so quickly to 1800 metres,” Hansen said.

“Lavington Star is an eight-year-old but she hardly missed a cheque last campaign.

“Now she’s won again I’m hoping she can go on and be just as consistent this prep.”

Racing Queensland webnews   November 18