Harness racing: Chris Lang welcomes return of stable star Ollivici after officially becoming a legend

News.com.au

7 days ago

It has been a huge week for training great Chris Lang.
The one-time 'King of Trotting' in Australia was inducted as a Caduceus Club 'Living Legend' on Monday night and his stable star Ollivici returns from an injury-enforced lay-off at Melton on Saturday night.
The 65-year-old, who has trained 38 Group 1 winners in Australia and driven 22, said he was surprised and humbled with his Living Legend award.
'My partner (Sonia Mahar) did a great job keeping it a secret. I didn't even know where we were going until we turned up at Melton, saw a few of my old mates arriving and then I twigged something was up,' Lang said.
'It was a very pleasant surprise and a real honour.'
Lang is the third member of one of harness racing's greatest families to be afforded Living Legend status.
Previously his late father, Graeme (1998) and brother Gavin (2013), were inducted.
Lang's long list of stars include: Sundons Gift, Skyvalley, Let Me Thru, National Interest, Kyvalley Road and Jauriol.
He trained three successive Inter Dominion trotting final winners with Galleons Sunset (2008) and Sundons Gift (2009 and '10).
In a couple of weeks, Lang, who now trains a select team in partnership with Sonia Mahar, will head to Brisbane to chase his fourth Inter Dominion.
Ollivici is a trotter Lang has always felt has feature-race talent and he's more than hinted at it with 18 wins, 17 placings and almost $300,000.
The gelding went to the last Brisbane Inter Dominion in late 2023 and made a splash with two wins a second in his three heats, but ran below his best when seventh in the final behind the great Just Believe.
An operation to remove a bone chip in a front fetlock has kept Ollivici away from the track since he ran third at Melton on December 14, last year.
'It's a deliberately long and slow build-up with our eye on Brisbane again,' Lang said.
'He had his third trial at Melton on Monday and we've asked a bit more of him each time. He hit the line well, made up a length on Callmethebreeze (a star trotter) and finished alongside him.'
Ollivici will start from gate nine in Saturday night's 2240m Aldebaran Park Trotters' free-for-all at Melton.
'It's a starting point and we'll get more racing into him before the Inter Dominion starts,' Lang said.
Much of that lead-up racing could be in Brisbane.
'We're thinking of going up early. There's racing options for him at Albion Park on June 14 and 21 and the week after that is the Redcliffe Trotters' Cup then the Inter heats starts on July 5,' Lang said.
'Given his long time out, we'd like to get him up there early to really settle in and get some racing under his belt.
Lang is looking to take emerging three-year-old trotter Farrokh north with Ollivici.
'He's a Q-bred (Queensland-bred) so there are some good bonuses up there for him. He won his last start at Maryborough (November 20) and is almost ready to head back to the races,' Lang said.