Greased Lightnin eyes Derby as Alexandra Park challenge looms

Sooner the Bettor.

Learning curves don’t come much steeper than the one Greased Lightnin finds himself on at Alexandra Park tonight.

But co-trainer Scott Phelan says he wouldn’t be surprised if the 3-year-old keeps on winning and reveals himself as a Derby contender.

Greased Lightnin contests the opener on a short and sharp night at Alexandra Park and finds himself being fast-forwarded into the intermediate grade.

As can sometimes happen at Alexandra Park with the small northern pool of horses, Greased Lightnin has come from a maiden race two starts ago to tonight taking on horses like his own stablemate Invisible, who a few starts ago was racing Miracle Mile runner-up Sooner The Bettor and Jolimont in a $100,000 open race.

Phelan, who trains in partnership with the legend Barry Purdon, says while the two stable reps are coming in with vastly different form lines, he can’t choose between them.

“We all know Invisible can mix it with those better horses, and he can win this week if he shows his best,” says Phelan.

“But I am not sure Greased Lightnin is any inferior ability-wise.

“Sure, he is younger and still improving, but he has real ability, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in some of the big races over the next few months.

“So while it is a big step-up this week, we wouldn’t be stunned if he won again.”

If Greased Lightnin can make it three wins on end, it could set up a family double, as his older half-sister Ultimate Racy Girl (R4, No 4) also finds herself in a race she can win.

She had her highs and lows in the second half of last season but is better than the grade she finds herself in tonight.

While the Purdon/Phelan team has a small but important hand at tonight’s meeting, two of their stable stars start their Sydney campaigns at Menangle tomorrow night.

Sooner The Bettor returns there against a genuinely top-class local in Captains Knock as he works his way toward the Miracle Mile, which has automatic qualifiers in two weeks.

“He is really well and will go a good race, but he will also improve with this week,” says Phelan.

Better Knuckle Up makes his Australian debut in the $50,000 Hondo Grattan Stakes, which is a qualifier for the Chariots of Fire on March 1.

He meets NZ Derby winner We Walk By Faith and a strong bunch of Australian 4-year-olds and faces the Menangle fresh-up curse, with the big mile track notoriously difficult for New Zealand horses to win their first start on, particularly in a Group-level mile.

The stable star Merlin will bypass tomorrow’s meeting and resume at Menangle next week as he also looks to qualify for the Miracle Mile via the lead-up races on March 1.

Harness racing sales week starts at Karaka tomorrow with a strong, select catalogue from New Zealand Bloodstock Standardbred, with the first lot at 1pm.

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.