By Brigette Solomon
Benjamin Butcher is looking forward to today’s Manawatu meeting where his two runners back up after a successful day on Sunday.
I Can Too scored his maiden victory, in the Wendy Devenport Stables Mobile Pace, with father David Butcher driving while Benjamin was third with and Hearts N Aces just a length behind.
“They both went good on Sunday, it was their first time away and they handled it well and did everything right in the race,” said Butcher, “I thought Hearts N Aces might have finished a bit closer but I’d had to go pretty wide to avoid one galloping in front of me around the 400 metre mark, so he did well to battle on.”
The race was run at a cracking pace with the Doody trained runner Jetasi, driven by Crystal Hackett, determined to lead over Enzo who did not hand up lightly. This resulted in the field being strung out some eight lengths from the leaders initially, with both of Butcher’s horses enjoying cover as they made up ground. Down the back straight on the final occasion, Hearts N Aces made a move three wide, while I Can Too managed to find a run one off the fence, and in doing so avoided the galloping Enzo who veered outwards inconveniencing Hearts N Aces who was forced wide. Both the Butcher trained horses battled on solidly, taking ground off the leaders with I Can Too getting his head in front of La Miki right on the line to win by a nose.
“They’re both good doing horses who eat well so they seem to have come through the race fine and hopefully they handle backing up today,” says Butcher.
I Can Too, driven today by Benjamin, starts in the Mister D G Mobile Pace over 2000 metres from barrier eight.
“I think he will go another good race today,” said Butcher, “while the draw is ok, I’ll be hoping he can do enough to hold the back of the one horse otherwise he could be at risk of getting shuffled back a bit too far.”
The ones to beat look to be Dixieland Delight (3) trained by Scott Dickson, and the Michael House trained Matai Harry (7). Both horses finished second in their respective races on Sunday and have been successful on the Manawatu track.
Hearts N Aces will look to claim a maiden win in the Braig Mobile Pace where he starts from barrier three.
“I think he’ll go ok again today, I’ll be driving him cold as that seems to be what works best for him and given some luck he shouldn’t be too far away.”
Alongside his own trained runners Butcher also drives Trippy Tyron – R1, Blue Chip Lou – R3, and The Elite Athlete – R5.
Race one kicks off today at 4.14pm.
