TAB EUREKA SLOT ANNOUNCEMENT - Fox Dan
OWNER Danny Zavitsanos admits there is a layer of sentiment to Fox Dan landing his slot in the world’s richest harness race.
Zavitsanos and wife, Jo, ended months of speculation when they settled on untapped three-year-old Fox Dan to fly their flag in Saturday’s $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle.
“We bred Fox Dan and his mum, Jodila, was the first harness horse I ever raced,” Zavitsanos said. “I paid $22,000 for her at the yearling sales and called her Jodila from a combination of my wife's name (Joanna) and my youngest daughter, who we called ‘Dila’.
“He’s such a special horse to us and if Jo had her way, we’d have locked him long ago.”
Fox Dan’s form just happens to be elite, too. He completed a hat trick of wins in easy at style at Melton last night (Saturday), to take his record to eight wins and three placings from just 12 starts.
Remarkably, Fox Dan represents the first time in three runnings of the TAB Eureka that “Team Zav’ has used its slot on one of their own horses.
“The whole idea of buying the slot was to do that, but you’ve also got to be a realistic at the time and give yourself every chance,” Danny Zavitsanos said.
They went with then boom horse Captain Ravishing in the inaugural 2023 TAB Eureka and finished third. Then classy mare Major Delight finished sixth in the Team Zav slot last year.
“We had a lot of good options this year and it looked a long way out as though this would be the year we’d go with one of our own,” Zavitsanos said.
“We’ve always had a good opinion of Fox Dan and he’s been high up our list of possibles, but he has just kept ticking every box and won well again last night.”
Fox Dan returned from a spell with an eye-catching second at Melton on June 28 and has won all three starts since against older rivals.
“He’s fast, but he’s strong, too. He’s just a lovely all-round racehorse and seems to be getting better with every run.”
Fox Dan gives trainers Emma Stewart three runners (Bay Of Biscay and Miki To Success the others), which equals the record they set last year. Queensland trainers Grant and Trista Dixon also have three runners this year (Fate Awaits, Call To Order and Path To Greatness).
Zavitsanos confirmed Ryan Sanderson, who has driven Fox Dan at his past three wins, will have the TAB Eureka drive.
Fox Dan’s slot leaves just one remaining slot to fill in the TAB Eureka, that of race sponsor TAB.
The other confirmed runners are: Fighter Command (Tasracing slot), Hesitate (John Singleton), Fate Awaits (Western Jewel), Seasthestars (Cordina Racing), Call To Order (Racing Qld) and Path To Greatness (Kevin and Kay Seymour).
TAB has until tomorrow (Monday) to finalise its slot runner and the barrier draw will be live on Sky Racing on Tuesday morning.
