Horse racing: Most big names draw well for Show Day meeting at Addington

Bolt To Brilliance has drawn ideally.

Don’t expect repeats of Tuesday’s staggering Cup Day group 1 performances at Addington tomorrow.

Because while the winners of the three group 1s on Tuesday all came from the second line to record astonishing winning performances, most of the big names who could draw well have for tomorrow’s Show Day meeting - the second leg of Addington big Cup week double header.

The obvious exception is hot favourite Muscle Mountain in the $300,000 Renwick Farms Dominion as he had to draw wide on the second line because he starts from the unruly.

But two of the other favourites for the 3200m trot have drawn handy, with northerner Bolt To Brilliance to start from barrier 4 if the emergency Tu Tangata doesn’t get a start while Smokin Bandar could move into the tricky barrier 1.

That would see Oscar Bonavena starting behind him from 1 on the second line, a less than ideal proposition.

With Bolt For Brilliance drawing ideally the TAB bookies tightened him into $2.90, moving Muscle Mountain out to $2.40 but that was soon snapped up by smart punters and he looks likely to start $2 or even shorter.

While their second line draws mean Muscle Mountain or Oscar Bonavena could have to produce some drama to win from back in the field, in the two pacing group 1s the leaders look set to dominate.

The $200,000 Airpark Canterbury NZ Free-For-All has vastly different draws from Tuesday’s Cup when both Swayzee and Akuta started from the second line.

This time Akuta has barrier 1 and Swayzee will start from 4 over the 1980m mobile.

On what doesn’t look a particularly fast front for this grade of horse, the question for punters and bookies will be whether Akuta can show more gate speed than he has usually been asked for in the past to try and hold the lead?

Or will Swayzee, who is not a gate blazer by Australian standards, cross him and lead again as he did by the half way stage in the Cup.

The bookies are more or less going to let punters decide who they want to start favourite as they opened Swayzee $2 and Akuta at $2.20, with some early support for Aardie’s Express even though she drew the second line.

The other group 1 pacing favourite to get the perfect draw is Coastal Babe, who will start from barrier 2 in the Dunstan Feeds Sires’ Stakes Final for the juvenile pacing fillies.

She has shown great gate speed to win Caduceus Club Fillies Final at Alexandra Park and Harness Million at Addington in her last two starts and looks a certain leader again and very hard to beat for trainer Steven Reid and driver Mathew White.