5 days ago
Jaccka Evan's return to form earns finals spot
Jaccka Evan has picked the right time to return to his best form.
The pacer will head into Southern Surge Finals Day at Gore in a fortnight after running to a monstrous win at Ascot Park yesterday for trainer Brett Gray and driver Dan Anderson.
Despite working hard in the running, Jaccka Evan powered away from his rivals to win in the fastest time of the day among the Southern Surge's 2200m heats.
"It wasn't the plan to drive him that way but we couldn't get into the running early and had to push forward," Anderson said.
"When Mr President came around I was happy to hand up parked to him but we were just travelling that good we had to keep going."
In running his 2min 41.7sec time, Jaccka Evan went faster than the higher-rated Southern Surge pacing heats.
The feeling among the Gray camp is that the pacer has always had the potential to produce such a performance.
"He raced some nice 3-year-olds early on but we had a bit of trouble with him over-racing.
"He had a good spell and he has come back quite good, his ringcraft has got better with each run this time in.
"If he had've had a run like today earlier on he would have fired right up, but he was great."
"Hopefully he can keep doing things right, especially with the [Southern Surge] final coming up."
Jaccka Evan is bred and raced by Charlie and Ailsa Smaill.
All of Anderson's five winners in the sulky in 2025 have come with the Smaill's "Jaccka" horses.
"Charlie and Ailsa are my biggest supporters as owners, they've been great to me.
"It is always good to drive a winner for them and repay the faith."
Three of Anderson's wins have come with Julie Jaccka, who is building up towards a spring return for the Brett Gray stable.
