Hope and his father/training partner Greg Hope have the perfect measuring stick too, as they also train tonight’s third-favourite, Midnight Dash, who was a last-start winner at Ōmakau.
“He is racing really well and they actually do all their work together,” Hope said.
“So while Dash can win, Muscle Mountain is usually too fast for him and their work together suggests that will be the case again.”
While those words will be reassuring, most punters who take $1.85 for horses to win like bad luck to be taken out of play and Hope says he plans to do that tonight.
“I think he has the most gate speed in the race and I plan to use it and I’d be surprised if he can’t lead.”
While the best version of Muscle Mountain would win tonight’s big trot, the two pacing features look anything but clear cut.
The $60,000 Garrards Mares Championship brings together some of the better fillies from last season’s 3-year-old crop against established older names like Francent and Esmeralda.
Francent (Race 10, No 9) was slightly lucky to win the Queen Of Hearts at Alexandra Park last start, the race Captains Mistress lost in dramatic circumstances when driver Nathan Williamson crashed to the track because of a sulky malfunction.
But that drama aside, Francent has developed into a very good mare, as has Esmeralda, and with even luck, they can beat the young pretenders.
But there is plenty of talent in the 4-year-olds, led by Beside Me.
The latter was an impressive winner in a weaker field last Friday but her talent has never been in question and if she launches early and gets to the front, she will take some running down.
There is still plenty to like about the chances of Winelight, Debbie Lincoln and General Jen in what is a beauty of a race.
The Breckon Farms Check Out Our Draft Pace is much lighter on numbers but just as even, with any one of the six starters a winning chance.
Pinseeker was brilliant winning at Ōmakau two starts ago and beaten in a very fast time on the tricky Nelson track last start, so deserves his favouritism, but Hadron Collider beat him fair and square that day and can do so again.
The best horse in the race, when he wants to be, is Chase A Dream, who is now trained by the Dunns, but is incredibly hard to predict.
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.
