Racing: A few untimely paces break run at record

I Can Doosit winning the NZ Trotting FFA. Photo / Getty Images

If you had looked down the field of the Group One Turf Bar Trotters Flying Mile (group two) at Cambridge last Monday and named horses likely to pace, the odds are the last on the list would have been I Can Doosit.

A good proportion of New Zealand trotters carry more than the odd pacing line, indeed his Mark Purdon trained-stablemate Escapee is by Sundon out of a pacing bred mare.

Many New Zealand trotters have been converted pacers, or pacing bred with a predilection of moving in a diagonal gait.

And there have been many good ones, including probably the greatest ever produced in this country, Lyell Creek, whose record for 20 wins in a row I Can Doosit was whittling down when it crashed to a halt after 18.

Coincidentally, Lyell Creek, by champion pacer Roydon Glen, also went into a pace which caused his winning streak to end.

But I Can Doosit is a Bluebred trotter, being by a champion American stallion Muscles Yankee out of Sheezadoosie, who is from US trotting bloodlines.

But pace he did for a few strides at the start, and then in the home straight for a few steps as he came to the end of a remarkable bid to overhaul Paul Nairn's veteran warhorse Stig who lowered I Can Doosit's national mile record by 3/10ths of a second to 1.55.2.

Stig, a 10-year-old whose 16 wins includes a Dominion, had almost three years off the scene but came back brilliantly last year only to run into a horse in a generation.

Soreness was given as a reason for I Can Doosit's indiscretion and the stable has indicated it is still likely he will be fit enough to try to atone in the group one National Trot at Alexandra Park tomorrow where he will take on a similar field over 2700m.

I Can Doosit is the defending champion and will be trying to emulate Lyell Creek, Take A Moment and One Over Kenny who defended the title in recent years.

The other group one feature on the quality 13-race card is the Alabar Sires Stakes Fillies race which really looks like boom filly Adore Me's to lose with her ace draw and her unblemished record against this crop. Mark Purdon also trains Rozelski who will probably be fighting it out for the minor money with last season's star 2YO Delightful Christian and Sunday Girl.

A small field will contest the Manukau Summer Cup with Tony Herlihy's Bettor Dream looking to make it three in a row. The field includes Mark Purdon warhorse Highview Tommy and Barry Purdon's Pembrook Bennt and Stephen Reid's Easy on the Eye.