By Michael Guerin
Got The Chocolates joined the rarest of racing clubs at Alexandra Park on Saturday night: horses who won a race they were scratched from.
And he beat the budding superstar of New Zealand pacing in Marketplace to do it.
The three-year-old pacer was enormous in the Woodlands Stud Northern Derby Prelude at Alexandra Park on Saturday night, sitting parked before holding out the red hot favourite in Marketplace, courtesy of a blazing 26 second last 400m.
The irony for punters is Got The Chocolates, who was originally scratched, was only allowed back into the race because the Alexandra Park meeting was transferred from last Thursday to Saturday because of rough weather in Auckland.
“We scratched him last week because he had an abscess in his hoof that burst out at the wrong time,” says driver John Dunn.
“But with an issue like that once they burst out they can heal pretty quickly.
“We flew our farrier Paul Howlett up from Canterbury and he did a great job and once the scratched horses were allowed back in after the meeting was postponed we decided to start.”
Many multi punters wish they hadn’t reinstated him as Marketplace was the red hot $1.24 favourite but Got The Chocolates beat the boom three-year-old fair and square.
Got The Chocolates sat parked for the last lap and while Marketplace had to come three wide and got unbalanced on the home bend, he still had time to catch the winner, albeit the sectionals were against him.
His defeat suggests there is life in races like this Friday’s Northern Derby and the other features that lie ahead as Marketplace was starting to look clearly superior but has now lost two of his last three starts, both when unable to chase down the horse on the speed.
“I think our horse will be even better suited by the 2700m next Friday but then again so will Marketplace and even though we beat him he is still the benchmark,” says Dunn.
The Dunn stable also won the three-year-old trot with Ya Rite Darl, who led throughout in the hands of Zachary Butcher to bolt away for the Sires’ Stakes Prelude over stablemate Frazzled.
The race changed complexion at the start when Habibti Pat became the latest in a long line of good trotters to blow their Alexandra Park debut, galloping early to give punters another bleeding nose.
But smart punters were gifted one free hit when Beside Me won the Northern Oaks Prelude effortlessly for fill-in driver Tony Herlihy.
Beside Me strode straight to the front and was way too good and while she closed a $1.30 favourite punters were able to get as much as $3 on a TAB promotion, for a maximum bet of $100, that was exempt from any deductions for scratchings.
Beside Me will face a deeper field in next Friday’s Oaks, with Arafura and Stella Rouge who were scratched on Saturday both returning, but she is now the $1.70 favourite to win the Oaks, one of five Group 1s at the Alexandra Park meeting.
