He’s back! The 2019 Million Dollar Chase winner, Group 1 Dapto Megastar winner, and the second highest prizemoney earner in the sport’s history will return to racing from stud duties, at Bathurst next Monday.
After a little more than three months of “retirement” while he embarked his stud career, Good Odds Harada will contest the heats of the Ladbrokes Bathurst Gold Cup at Kennerson Park, a track he has a fond affiliation with.
Back in 2019, trainer Frank Hurst took Good Odds Harada to Bathurst to qualify for the TAB Million Dollar Chase through their regional series. He won his heat and final in effortless fashion and the next month would win the Grand Final at Wentworth Park.
Good Odds Harada, whose defence of his MDC crown last year ended when unplaced in the semi-finals of the 2020 edition, has not raced since finishing third behind Ritza Donald at Wentworth Park on October 24.
“We only retired him because trying to combine racing and stud duties was just too difficult,” Hurst said.
“He’s gone bonza at stud. We weren’t around for last (breeding) season as I didn’t want to retire him then because he was racing well, but this breeding season he’s done extra well. He’s probably done about 30 bitches and everyone loves him, and he’s getting big litters.
“As you’d expect things will go quiet now while people wait and see how his pups go, and hopefully they will go well and his stud career will be off and running again.
“We were always likely to come back to race. He’s a beautiful natured dog, the best nature you have seen, but right now he’s fit again, he’s bouncing three feet high in the kennel wanting to get out and run up and down the yard. He wants run.
“The bottom line though for us is that we love the dog and wouldn’t do anything to harm him, but he’s keen to race again, and we have a stock of straws, so we decided to put him back into work and he’s loving it.”
Hurst declared that Good Odds Harada was “going as good ever” and with several Cup races around the corner, he may even be able to surpass the Australian prizemoney record held currently by Fanta Bale.
Good Odds Harada has earned $1,302,735 from his 75 starts with 31 wins and 29 placings, while the record stands with Fanta Bale at $1,365,175.
The Bathurst Cup is worth $25,000 to the winner, and then two weeks later the Bulli Gold Cup will be run and it carries $40,000 to the winner.
“He’s been back in work for a few weeks now and he’s trialled well,” Hurst said. “He went around 26.2s at Bulli and went 29.6s at Dapto on Monday morning.
“He loves Bathurst. He’s a 29.3s dog there, and he’s broken the record that many times in trials there, it’s not funny.
“I haven’t taken him there for a trial this time so it will be a nice surprise for him on Monday.”
Good Odds Harada has drawn beautifully in box two in his heat but won’t have it all his own way with Group 1 Paws Of Thunder placegetters Winlock On Top (box 4) and Zulu Warlord (box 5) drawn in the same heat.
Three heats of the Cup will be run on Monday with the final the following Friday.
