Merlin and Zachary Butcher on their way to winning The Race at Cambridge two years ago. Photo / Harness Racing New Zealand
Zachary Butcher knows he may be getting into a fight he can’t win.
But the superstar reinsman thinks that is better than not turning up to the fight at all.
So punters can expect past winner Merlin to be driven positively from his handy barrier 3 in the $1 million Race by Sport Nation at Cambridge tomorrow night, even though that means potentially getting involved in Leap To Fame and Swayzee’s family feud.
Merlin won the slot race two years ago after Butcher got his tactics spot-on but he has only won one Group 1 race since – and that was a weaker New Zealand Free-For-All 18 months ago.
Merlin is arguably the fastest pacer in New Zealand and loves Cambridge, where he has six wins and four placings from 10 starts.
Yet he is a $26 chance with the TAB in tomorrow’s 2200m mobile.
With speedster Captains Knock drawn the ace inside him, Swayzee at barrier 2 and Leap To Fame certain to be working forward inside the first 600m, if not sooner, from barrier 6, Merlin isn’t going to have a lot of friends when the mobile pulls away.
Butcher says he has little choice but to charge into enemy territory at the front of the field.
“There is no point pulling back at the start,” he said.
“If I do where do I end up and when do I get into the race?
“So Plan A will be asking him to run the gate and hopefully getting across to the markers in front.
“I think he can do that, he is really fast early and if we get there, we have options.
“That could mean handing up to either Swayzee or Leap To Fame and using the passing lane late or, if he feels really good in front, going with him.”
Butcher says he also has the safety net of going hard for the first 50m and if he doesn’t think he will cross Captains Knock working forward, he’s thinking that either Swayzee or Leap To Fame will eventually lead and Merlin could end up in the one-one on the back of the other.
“The dream scenario is we get the front, keep going and lead all the way – but that is easier said than done,” Butcher said, like a man discussing what he’d do if he won Lotto.
“I always drive them how they feel and that can change really quickly when you are out there, but at this stage I don’t see any point not using his gate speed.”
As great as Leap To Fame and Swayzee are, the spanner in Merlin’s work could be Captains Knock, who has barrier 1 and plenty of gate speed, honed by seasons of elite level and age group racing in Australia.
His trainer-driver Brad Hewitt is very clear about his plans, saying he wants to lead and if he does, he would only consider taking a trail on either Swayzee or Leap To Fame.
“Without being rude to the locals, I don’t think they are going as good as our horses,” Hewitt said.
“So my first job is to hold the front, which I think I can do, and then decide what to do next, based on tempo.”
That suggests some genuine early tempo, which would only seem to ensure one of the two favourites eventually gets the lead after 400m or even 600m – and that will leave the drivers back in the second half of the field with few options, as not many want to be the one sitting three wide starting the last 600m.
Leap To Fame remained the $2.30 favourite on Wednesday night, while Swayzee was a slight mover with the TAB, in from $4.20 to $4. The Janitor was out from $3 to $3.20, with that pair looking likely to eventually swap spots in the market.
Butcher will also partner the trotting young gun Meant To Be in tomorrow’s $530,000 TAB Trot, where he starts from wide on the admittedly small front line.
“He really arrived in the big time, winning last start, and has probably got to this level faster than we maybe thought,” Butcher said.
“He has a huge future in front of him but with those mares all drawn inside of him, including, of course, Keayang Zahara, I would have thought top three would be a great result.”
What: New Zealand harness racing’s biggest night of the year.
When: This Friday.
Where: Cambridge Raceway.
Highlights: $1 million Race By Sport Nation, $530,000 TAB Trot, $50,000 IRT Sires’ Stakes Trot, $50,000 Magness Benrow Sires’ Stakes Fillies, $50,000 Garrards Sires’ Stakes Males, $40,000 Sapphire Stakes.
After party: headlined by Drax Project.
Can I go? Yes, general admission and hospitality tickets still available.
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.