Harness racing: Driver hoping Ballerini doesn’t show fancy footwork in Trot

Jilliby Ballerini won her only standing start at Melton but faces a far bigger manners test today. Photo/ Stuart McCormick

Australian reinsman Jason Lee admits the mystery horse of New Zealand Cup day comes with a risk.

So he has warned punters that Jilliby Ballerini is no good thing even as the surprise $2.80 favourite in today’s $400,000 Renwick Farms Dominion at Addington.

While diehard harness fans may have seen Jilliby Ballerini starring in Victoria recently, well over 90% of New Zealand harness racing fans would have never seen her race.

Here is the snapshot: 4-year-old mare trained by the same stable as champion youngster Keayang Zahara, used to be a bit erratic but looks calmer now.

And can run like the wind.

But Jilliby Ballerini has also only had one career standing start, which she won, today is her first 3200m race and she has never even been out of Victoria until last week.

“To be honest, I thought she was a bit short,” Lee admitted.

“Make no mistake, she is good enough to win, otherwise she wouldn’t be coming over and she is really fast.

“Like, I don’t think Zahara could sit parked outside her over the short trip and beat her.

“But she is going to need to be a quick learner ’cause she will never have seen a front line like she will on Tuesday and the hard-run 3200m.

“So I realise this has its challenges.”

If Jilliby Ballerini steps cleanly and can stay handy, especially on a moderate tempo, her young legs may be too fast for the old boys and she could do something spectacular.

But her $2.80 favouritism is hard to comprehend.

While she has had the wood on Inter Dominion champion Arcee Phoenix recently, there is a lot of been-there, done-that about the latter and his $9 is the best each-way value of today’s entire meeting, because it he leads, he will take enormous pegging back.

There is enough to like about Mighty Logan, Rowe Cup winner Bet N Win and Queensland trotter Gus to suggest they could all win without stunning, which leaves us the two old heroes of New Zealand trotting in Oscar Bonavena and Muscle Mountain.

Both are majestic examples of the trotter when their bodies and minds are in sync, blessed with turbo-charged motors but cursed with the dents that come from going too fast for too long.

If the Canterbury sun warms their old muscles today, they step away and are put to sleep until their rivals get weary, they could do something dazzling in the last 400m so don’t let anybody talk you out of backing them.

So often, the Dominion, our greatest trot, has been won by equine giants who have stomped around Addington mercilessly.

Today’s Dominion doesn’t have one of those.

So it might come down to who can handle the pressure, cover the least ground and, ultimately, at the end of 3200m, who wants it the most.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.