The two Waikato Flying Miles will highlight tonight’s Cambridge-Addington Friday Night Lights double-header.
Merlin and co will battle it out in the Garrards Pacers Flying Mile (8.02pm) a week out from the $1m The Race by betcha as will rising star Bet N Win in the Trotters Mile (8.38pm) before next Friday’s $600,000 TAB Trot.
Meanwhile the country’s top driver Blair Orange looks set to make his presence felt at Addington.
Merlin “ready to win” at Cambridge tonight
By Michael Guerin
Merlin is ready to put his season back on track at Cambridge tonight but whether he gets the opportunity to do that may be up to his opponents as much as the star pacer.
The multiple Group 1 winner is using tonight’s $60,000 Garrards Flying Mile as his final lead-up to his defence next week of the $1million slot race he won last year.
But Merlin’s challenges over the next week are two-fold.
Firstly the Race by betcha is looking considerably stronger this year than last and he is heads into his week in the Waikato off the back of a shock failure at Menangle last start.
Merlin has been an almost perfect racehorse right from the start of his career but a false start he caused in a heat of the Miracle Mile last start was then followed by a searing early burn that saw Merlin record a rare unplaced finish and left him jaded.
“He was tired after that last race, not much went right,” says co-trainer Scott Phelan.
“But he has improved every week since and he trialled really well in a fast time [Pukekohe] last week.
“So he is fit and ready to win.”
That coupled with his deserved reputation saw Merlin open the $2.50 favourite for tonight’s sprint but from barrier 3 on the second line his fate may not be solely in the hands of driver Zachary Butcher.
Sooner The Bettor (Merlin’s stablemate), Pinseeker, Rakero Rocket, Ohoka Connor and even Mo’unga could all head forward early and while that should create pressure it could see a super fast mile without an easy sectional for those further back in the field to easily get handy.
“We will leave that up to Zac but tactically it could be a really interesting race,” admits Phelan, who will drive Sooner The Bettor.
If the early burn eventuates and Merlin finds the right rival to follow three wide or somehow manages to land midfield outer then he is the horse to beat but this could just as easily become a race in which the pattern is against him in several ways.
Phelan and senior training partner Barry Purdon also have Sooner The Bettor and Duchess Megxit in tonight’s race and they are set to have vastly different experiences.
Sooner The Bettor has the gate speed to try and lead and Phelan is keen to stay in front as, at this stage, he doesn’t have a slot in The Race by Betcha next Friday so he can afford a harder run tonight.
But Duchess Megxit has drawn one on the second line and will have to be driven cold, with next Friday her far bigger target as she is likely to get barrier 1 under the $1million race’s conditions.
Pinseeker and Rakero Rocket will be factors at least early tonight but Ohoka Connor, Chase A Dream and Mo’unga all probably need to work forward from their wide draws or face settling behind Merlin.
So while lead-up races can sometimes be notoriously tame affairs, tonight could be different as outside Merlin most in tonight’s field can’t realistically expect to beat Aussie superstars Leap To Fame and Don Hugo in The Race next Friday.
Bet N Win to go for all-the-way win
If Bet N Win is to have any chance of winning our richest trot next Friday he probably has to win a far easier one tonight. And win it by leading throughout.
The Canterbury trotter will start a hot favourite against just four opponents in tonight’s $60,000 Trotter’s Mile at Cambridge, the lead-up to the TAB Trot worth 10 times as much back there next Friday.
Driver Bob Butt realises what is coming next week with four high-class Australians flying in to join Queensland talent Not As Promised who is among his rivals tonight, so Butt wants to make a statement.
“Those Aussie trotters are really good at the moment,” says Butt.
“They are going to be tough to beat next week so we want to earn some respect and see just how fast he can begin this week because he could really need that gate speed next week.”
Bet N Win was quick off the gate and brave at the end to win the NZ Trotting Champs last start and with Butt suggesting he will try to lead throughout tonight he should have tactical superiority in a race that could lack attackers, with Kyvalley Hotspur the interesting value option.
Orange with good book of drives at Addington
By Michael Guerin
New Zealand’s best driver is facing the very real possibility of missing one of the country’s premier race nights.
And it won’t be because Blair Orange is suspended or unavailable. Quite remarkably, he doesn’t see himself having many, if any, drives at the Night Of Champions at Cambridge next Friday.
Orange will be at Addington tonight as he was last Friday and says he could well be there again next Friday as he has no confirmed bookings for Cambridge.
“At this stage I could miss it and be driving down here,” says Orange, who won the then Race by Grins on Copy That two years ago.
As usual Orange is focused on what lies directly ahead of him and that includes a tricky NZB Standardbred Handicap Pace (7.28pm) at Addington tonight in which he will partner Vessem.
Vessem was too strong in a 56.3 second last 800m at Addington last start and can clearly win again but Orange admits being off a 10m handicap in a four-horse race presents its challenges.
“They can be really hard races to drive in,” he told HRNZ.
“They will get into single file and you could make a case for every horse in the race.
“Vessem can win because he will eventually end up in open class. I am not saying he will be a star when he gets there but he is actually getting better.
“When he was a young horse he didn’t have a lot of speed but he is getting faster.”
The concern tonight could be if a horse like Renegade, on the front line, steps well and keeps running an even tempo how the two horses in the second half of the field get into the race without making it for each other.
Orange likes his book of drives tonight that also include Mystic Max (R7, No.8) in the $20,000 Peninsular Beachfront Resort Mooloolaba Handicap Trot in which he faces a 20m handicap but is one of the bigger guns coming out of a Group 1 into tonight’s 2600m stand.
“I think the trotting filly I am driving Paramount Picture (R2, No.2) will be hard to beat as she was really good on debut last start.
“And Secret Wish (R4, No.4) has to go close to winning as she was really good last start too and that should have improved her.”
Tonight’s meeting also sees the return of Father Time (R5, No.12) after he spent the start of summer chasing around superstar filly Keayang Zahara. He has trialled twice and has to be hard to beat even off a handicap in a big field in the Seahorse Supplements Handicap Trot (7.03pm).
