Master trainer Paul Nairn eyes treble at Addington races tonight

Tectonic with winning driver Sarah O’Reilly. Photo / Race Images

When you have trained the army of open-class trotting stars that Paul Nairn has you don’t get carried away.

So that fact Nairn thinks Tectonic can win his way to the big time makes him stand out in an intermediate grade trot at Addington on a cold winter’s night.

Nairn is widely regarded as the master of New Zealand trotting training even though he rarely has big numbers in work.

It is a title that means something considering the trotting deeds over the last 20 years of, to name a few: The All Stars, Phil Williamson, Tim Butt, Team Dunn, John Dickie, Greg and Nina Hope and the Wallis/Hackett team.

That is a lot of very, very good trainers of trotters but Nairn commands an almost mystical respect, seen as somebody who does things differently and turns water into wine.

He is not predicting that Tectonic, who chases his fourth straight win at Addington tonight, is going to be a classic vintage like former Nairn superstars Call Me Now or Stig, but he knows he has a trotter better than winter class.

Tectonic was one of our better three-year-olds last season but was sidelined for almost a year with a tendon issue that required an operation where the sheath around the tendon is cut to enable it to heal better.

It obviously worked as Tectonic has looked right back to his best in his recent wins and still on the improve.

“He is a nice horse so it is good to see him back racing so well,” says Nairn.

“Obviously the best trotters aren’t racing this time of the year but he can work his way toward open class.

“Most horses need to improve once they get there to be competitive but he has good manners and ability.”

Tectonic is also only a four-year-old so potentially has a lot of racing ahead of him and could others coming through like Bet N Win and Sunny’s Sister who will be welcome additions to our flagging open class ranks when they get there.

He faces an interesting challenge tonight off a 10m handicap over 2000m, which can leave horses vulnerable to the front markers stepping and running hard, but with only five rivals and two of those also on the 10m mark he should be able to keep winning with average luck.

Another who can win again for Nairn is Forgiveness (R2, No.2) who bolted away with her maiden race last week and looks to be strengthening up.

She does go up in grade tonight and comes up against some handy enough horses to make this an in-stern test.

Nairn has another last-start winner in Luvavici (R9) in a good-form race and he gives the popular trainer a shot at a treble with what would make up about half of his winter racing team.

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.