The accolade of best racehorse in Australasia would be given automatically to Winx by fans of flat racing, but harness racing enthusiasts would make a strong claim that the honour should belong to the New Zealand pacer Lazarus.

Winx (sahracing.com)

On Saturday night at Melton in Victoria Lazarus joined Winx as a winner of 15 Group 1 races when winning the A$500,000 A G Hunter Cup over 2760m in sensational fashion. He lowered the track record in the process and at the same time became the richest pacer in New Zealand history.

Lazarus now has his eyes set on breaking a horse called Blacks A Fake’s record as the highest earning horse in Australasian history. He is currently the third highest earner and is still more than A$1 million shy of Blacks A Fake’s record.

However, he has the $750,000 Miracle Mile at Menangle on February 24 as his next target and will contest a prelude there on February 17.

Lazarus will need to win the Miracle Mile to cement his place as one of the greatest pacers of all time because he met with a rare defeat there last year when only third behind Lennytheshark and Smolda, despite a record bet of A$28,000 being placed on him by one punter on TAB Fixed Odds.

Trainer-driver Mark Purdon was worried going into Saturday’s AG Hunter Cup. Lazarus had been forced to miss the West Australia Cup two weeks prior with hoof problems and then last Wednesday he was smashed in track work by his own stablemate Heaven Rocks, who himself was a brave and luckless third on Saturday night.

In South Africa harness racing does not have a big following, but it will be worth tuning in on February 24 to watch some magnificent horses in action including the mighty Lazarus.

By David Thiselton