By Michael Guerin
If Friday night’s Avon City Ford New Brighton Cup is anything to go by we are in for a great spring of build-ups to the New Zealand Cup.
The open class pace on a stacked Addington card has drawn a field of 16 headlined by the return of B D Joe and Republican Party against in-form recent winners Anything Goes, Mossdale Ben, Macandrew Aviator and American Me.
That is a huge field for this stage of spring and when you consider the southern open class ranks are still to see the return of Self Assured, Akuta and Krug while there are still a handful of northern pacers headed by Copy That and Old Town Road to come back, there are plenty of potential Cup horses around.
While some of those who finish worse than midfield this Friday may start to reset their sights on easier races, we are at least starting spring with real numerical depth in the open ranks.
That should continue through races like the Hannon Memorial, Canterbury Classic and Methven Cups before we see some of the lesser-rated horses start to drop away come Flying Stakes time.
While Friday’s main pace has a full field main trot, the Dyers Road ITM Ordeal Cup has just eight starters for Muscle Mountain’s return.
He faces not only a 10m handicap but being on the unruly but will still be a hot favourite as the small field somewhat negates those other disadvantages.
Between the two open class races the meeting boasts the next Nevele R Fillies heat while unbeaten juvenile Vessem is one of only two winners in the two-year-old race.
To view the Addington fields click here
