By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk
The way Taliesin won on Tuesday night many will be thinking the seven-year-old is an absolute shoo-in at Manawatu tonight. Trainer Michael House isn’t quite as sure.
The son of Shadow Play led from the start and cleared out to win by more than four lengths in the Colin Campbell Mobile Pace (2000m) in 2:27.4.
“He was the fastest of the night by nearly two seconds,” says trainer Michael House, who had four winners on Tuesday and has a team of 22 engaged tonight.
The Canterbury-based trainer has been a dominant force in the Manawatu training around 130 winners there in recent years. He specialises in placing his horses well and turning around horses that haven’t reached their potential.
Taliesin is a case in point.
He picked the horse up as a 32-start maiden. He has since won three times in 14 starts.
Soon after his breakthrough success, House decided to put the horse on Gavelhouse, with Auckland property investor Rodger Harman snapping him up for a song.
“I bought him for $1400 and he’s won $21,000 in seven or eight months,” says Harman.
Harman then asked House if he’d be interested in continuing to train him. He agreed. The pair have never met in person with Harman clearly more than happy with the way things are going at the moment.
“In 12 starts he’s had two wins for me four seconds, a third and a fourth… he’s done a great job.”
While Sarah O’Reilly was in charge of Taliesin on Tuesday the country’s leading driver Blair Orange takes over tonight in Race 6, the Gattsche Construction Mobile Pace (7.35pm).
House is wary of labelling him a certainty.
“He did it with a leg in the air (On Tuesday) … but he can struggle to back up. Usually I give him plenty of space between races.”
“It can be tricky for all my horses on the second day. They have already travelled north and they’ve raced once and then we ask them to go to the well again.”
Plus tonight’s race is 2500m, as opposed to 2000m earlier in the week.
House has at least one and up to five horses in each of tonight’s seven race programme.
Of his chances he thought Grinning Again (R5, 7.10pm) was his pick of the night. He also thought the 2500m could suit Franco Hoffman in Race 4 (6.43pm) , that Valynda could capitalise on an improved draw in Race 3 (6.15pm) and trotters Break Free and Petronelli would run well to kick off a busy evening in Race 1 (5.23pm).
