A flourishing racing partnership could deliver Shane Sanderson and owners Paul and Danny Lowry a special harness racing success this Saturday night.
Sanderson struck up a friendship with the Birchip-based farmers after his move from New South Wales to Charlton in early 2021, and just a few short years later the trio is set to chase glory in the Inter Dominion Pacing Championship Grand Final with Dangerous.
The son of Sweet Lou has emerged as one of the smokeys in this year’s series, with heat placings at Newcastle and Bathurst before victory in the last round of qualifiers at Menangle on Saturday night.
He will be driven by Sanderson’s son Ryan from gate two in the weekend’s $500,000 decider.
Sanderson recalls identifying and purchasing Dangerous at the Melbourne Nutrien Equine yearling sales due to his striking looks and strong pedigree.
“Paul and Danny basically sent me to the sales without even knowing me and asked me to buy them a yearling. I bought them Dangerous and Catalpa Rescue the first year,” Sanderson said.
“Dangerous was an outstanding individual, he was a great type. I knew the family from Queensland and it was a very prolific family.”
Always gifted and expected to progress through his grades, Dangerous finally started to realise his potential with victory in the Mildura Pacing Cup Final in April and looks to be hitting career-best form as he heads towards this weekend’s Inter Dominion showdown.
The Sanderson-Lowry connection has extended beyond just racing pacers, with the two families teaming up to purchase Willowood Farm, in Murchison North, near Shepparton. There, the Sandersons prepare a team of standardbreds and also dabble in pre-training, agisting and rehabilitating thoroughbreds.
Aside from the joy he would get with son Ryan in the sulky, Sanderson said winning an Inter Dominion crown for the Lowry brothers would be “the ultimate” in a career that has already captured Group 1 success as a trainer in 2020 thanks to Maywyn Jasper’s performance in the 2010 Australian Pacing Gold 3YO Colts and Geldings Final.
“They’re just so trusting, so supportive and they just back you,” he said. “They basically back every decision you make and they don’t really want to have a say. They just want to support you.
“They’re unbelievable really. People gravitate to them, other friends want to be part of it and there’s people jumping to try and get in the horses with them.”
The Lowrys race Dangerous in partnership with John Wilson, Leon Hogan, Robert Hodge and Max Dillon, with the four-year-old already a winner of 10 races and over $200,000 in prizemoney.
Dangerous’ stablemate Perfect Stride is the second emergency in the Inter Dominion Pacing Championship Grand Final, with David Aiken’s veteran Max Delight the only other Victorian-trained runner in the current starting field.
– By Tim O’Connor, Harness Racing Victoria.