Hay: Good draws not enough

By Michael Guerin

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Okay, it might sound like just another cliche to you, but to Canterbury trainer John Hay it is the story of the harness racing season.

Hay started the year with a dream to win the New Zealand Cup and what he and many others thought was the horse to do it in Franco Enforce.

He had a pretty nifty second stringer in There's A Franco but when the cheques were being dished out on Cup day the Hay duo had to settle for third and fourth.

There was no disgrace in that and as the sun went down on Cup day Hay could look forward to the Auckland Cup safe in the knowledge that horses like Christian Cullen and Holmes D G may not be there and may not be at their peak if they were.

After all, the mighty ones clashed in the New Zealand Free-For-All before Christian Cullen went ballistic all over New South Wales.

Hay could be excused for thinking that somewhere along the line there had to be a last straw to break Christian Cullen's back.

But with the Auckland Trotting Cup just days away that straw has not turned up.

Hay does not see this as good news.

"Really I am in the same position now as I was going into the New Zealand Cup," Hay said.

"Before that race I thought we would be flat beating Christian Cullen and I think that about next week too.

"He is just so good he could go through the whole season without being beaten."
Hay goes with the popular belief Holmes D G is clearly the second best horse in New Zealand and says that leaves his pair looking for a lucky break next Tuesday night.

"My horses are both capable of being in it but it will take something special to beat Christian Cullen and Holmes D G," Hay said.

"You can make too much of Christian Cullen's 10m handicap. I have seen horses start from handicaps before and be in the one-one after 400m.

"And Holmes D G may have a second line draw but some horses go away better following other horses. Holmes D G has always looked like a horse who could win the Auckland Cup."

Franco Enforce had not raced since his New Zealand Cup third, in which he pulled up looking sore but suffered no real harm.

Hay would have liked to have got one race into the former Australian Three-Year-Old of the Year but says he is enough of a natural athlete to handle Tuesday's 3200m while fresh.
"It might not be ideal but he is clean-winded so I don't think it will worry him too much."
But There's A Franco disappointed in the Summer Cup last week and her $50 fixed odds look realistic.