Hardman Upbeat About Untapped Zipping Mahalia

SOUTHERN Tablelands trainer Mick Hardman has no idea where the ceiling is for his exciting young chaser Zipping Mahalia.

The Hallinan-owned daughter of Zipping Garth made the perfect start to her career when leading throughout to break 30 seconds when winning a heat of Saturday's Ladbrokes Christmas Maiden Chase.

FIELDS AND FORM WENTWORTH PARK SATURDAY NIGHT

“It has all happened very quickly with her," Hardman said. “I've only had the litter for eight weeks.

"When I picked the litter up I think Cameron (Hallinan) knew because he put her in the back of the van in the good cage behind the driver's seat and said ‘look after this one'.

"About six weeks ago I picked her out to try to get her ready for this race.

"The way she went in her first two trials made it worth having a crack at and I thought if I get there, I get there but if not, there's plenty of other races.

"Young dogs can flatline and sometimes and go backwards but she's never run the same time twice or gone backwards once.

"She's just improved and improved every time I have trialled her.

"Just a standout."

Zipping Mahalia is likely to start as the favourite in the $10,000-to-the-winner final when she jumps from box one after she was one of the two heat winners to go under the 30-second barrier, running 29.91 when scoring from box eight.

"Since being broken in she'd only had one run out of the boxes prior to the heat at Dapto," Hardman said.

"The heat was also her first 500 so it's fair to think she's still got a fair bit of improvement in her.

"There doesn't look a lot of speed in the race so she's drawn to win the race if she does everything right.

"If she was to do something wrong and get beaten, I won't be cutting my wrists either."

After Saturday night, win or lose, Hardman plans to give Zipping Mahalia a short break before raising the bar in the New Year.

"After Saturday night I'll put her away for a few weeks then start getting her ready for the Futurity," he said.

"It's exciting. When you get dogs like this it makes it easy to get out of bed in the mornings."