By Michael Guerin
Mighty Logan succeeded where so many others have failed when leading throughout in the $100,000 Fisken And Son Anzac Cup at Alexandra Park on Friday.
The Dominion runner-up from last November landed some big bets when he was able to take the Group 1 in what was his first start at Alexandra Park.
Some great trotters have come to Alexandra Park and been tripped up by their first right handed start but not Mighty Logan, with driver John Dunn saying it was a team stable effort to hone him for his Auckland debut.
“We were going to bring him up here last year but we couldn’t get him going right-handed and even though he got in on the last bend tonight he was still too good,” says Dunn.
“Some of the credit has to go to Riley Harrison [stable employee] who has done a great job with him.”
Dunn suggests Mighty Logan can improve further for the Rowe Cup next Friday and he must be a great chance even if next week’s handicaps won’t suit him quite as perfectly as this week.
The two favourites Oscar Bonavena and Muscle Mountain were both off 10m last night and it soon got much worse for them as Oscar galloped and never looked a winning chance and Muscle Mountain was taken out of the race when his own stablemate Midnight Dash swung around and collected him.
Add them both back to the same front mark as Mighty Logan next week and hopefully with Bet N Win, who missed the race, returning and the Rowe Cup now looks a very intriguing contest.
While two of the Ben and Greg Hope horses took each other out the stable will still have to be happy with the second of Mr Love while One Over All and Queen Elida were good off their 10m handicaps in a race they were always going to struggle to win once Mighty Logan led and got into such a good rhythm.
Earlier in the night our best three-year-old trotter Meant To Be confirmed that title but only just in the Breckon Farms Northern Trotting Derby.
The big boy rolled around the field early to take the early lead off stablemate Higher Power but he had to dig very deep in the last 200m to hold that advantage as Higher Power kept coming in the home straight.
It was a typical Derby for horses who weren’t used to the 2700m mobile, with all the main players struggling at the business end but the bottom line is Meant To Be still started from the unruly, looped the field and won so is the king of this crop so far.
It was the first Northern Trotting Derby win for driver Zachary Butcher after captured the previous two Northern Pacing Derbys for the same winning trainers, Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan.
“He got a bit keen and I was worried at the top of the straight but he kept going like a good horse does,” said Butcher.