By Jonny Turner
Kentuckiana Lodge's winning treble at Addington on Friday night has brought out Cran Dalgety, harness racing nerd.
New firepower was unleashed as the Dalgety stable continued to gear up for a big spring with their three winners.
Beside Me made the best possible return to racing when powering to a smart victory, with Asymmetric Return doing exactly the same.
A good night out all started with Franco Ankara running to a deserved maiden win.
Adding to the excitement at Addington, a winning treble in the sulky took Carter Dalgety past 300 wins in New Zealand.
Kentuckiana's winning haul now has Cran deep in study to plot a path forward for his winners.
The aim with Beside Me is to time her run into better races around the New Zealand Cup Carnival.
"With it being her first start in about eight months, we didn't think she was any kind of home run," Cran said.
"But as they say class is permanent and once Carter took the opportunity to take the front she was going to be hard to catch."
"She had a very frustrating campaign at the end of last year so with Paul and Mary Kenny we decided to put her aside."
"She has returned in great shape and we hope that patience will pay off."
"The plan is to pick a bit of a path forward to Cup Week, being a mare we want to find the right opportunities for her so there will be plenty of studying of the programmes."
Asymmetric Return also has better races in her sights after her fresh up victory.
The three-year-old dashed out of the pack after an early check left her further back than expected.
Similarly, Cran will try to pick the best possible path towards spring targets with the progressive filly.
"She's a lovely filly and she has a great turn of foot, which is going to be her big asset going forward."
"She's returned in great shape, we will be patient with her in the short term and look to give her a shot at some of the better fillies."
Just like his two stablemates, Franco Ankara was an impressive fresh up winner for the Dalgety stable.
The three-year-old raced well at the end of his two-year-old season and has now returned bigger and stronger.
"It was a good win because he did his share of work to find the front and he dug in when they come up beside him."
"He's come back in good shape and hopefully he can build some nice form."
Suspicious Captain ran a tidy fresh up fourth behind Franco Ankara and will back up at Addington this week.
Joyride and Eun Sogno will also step out on Friday night.
