Racing: Adore Me will concentrate on mobile starts

Trainer Mark Purdon says it was a less-than-ideal start to the season for Adore Me. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Fans of glamour pacing mare Adore Me can feel a lot better about her comeback disaster than those who backed her on Monday.

Last season's champion filly completely blew the standing start of her Ashburton return and finished tailed off, costing punters a fortune.

However, trainer Mark Purdon says that while it was a less-than-ideal start to the season Adore Me has taken no harm from the debacle.

The 4-year-old pacing sensation surprisingly finished further from the leaders than the 30m she settled after her wild early gallop, raising concerns she may have hurt herself in the incident, as her former stablemate Auckland Reactor once did during one of his crazed gallops.

"The reason she finished so far back was because I didn't chase them," said Purdon.

"Once she galloped and lost that much and they were going so hard I knew she had no chance of running in the money so I let her pace around under her own steam.

"While she finished a long way from them she pulled up fine, with no injuries from the gallop and she wasn't distressed at all.

"But I won't be looking at a standing start again with her for a while."

Adore Me's main aim is now the two mobile mares' races at Alexandra Park in December.

She wasn't the only expensive galloper in a pacing feature on Monday, with Christen Me's rodeo act in the Flying Stakes costing him New Zealand Cup favouritism with the New Zealand TAB.

In what seems like an odds over-reaction, the TAB moved Flying Stakes winner Terror To Love in from $2.80 to $1.80 favouritism for the Cup, whereas Christen Me drifted from $1.80 pre-race to $2.60.

Australian bookmakers still have the opposite to those odds, meaning punters who think the Cup is a two-horse race can back both pacers with a guaranteed profit of 35 per cent should either win.

Who starts favourite in the Cup in 13 days is likely to come down to who draws better, with either of the pair certain to drift if they draw the second line, while the other draws the front.

Meanwhile, the Australian challenge for the Cup moved a step closer to doubling in size when Caribbean Blaster won at the Melton trials yesterday.

He now heads to Menangle on Saturday night for a high-class mobile mile in which he clashes with Pukekohe speedster Gold Ace.

Safely through that, Caribbean Blaster, fourth favourite for the Cup, will fly to Christchurch with trotting stablemate Elegant Image.

Northern contenders Besotted and Pembrook Benny will square off at Alexandra Park on Friday night, with Besotted needing a win and possibly some defections to earn a Cup spot.