Racing: Be warned - Elsu still has more in the tank

David Butcher sat in the lounge of his Cambridge house last Monday night, stunned by what he had seen on his television set.

Butcher had just watched a replay of the $450,000 Hunter Cup race and was staggered by Elsu's performance to win Australasia's greatest standing start event.

Elsu, in the hands of Butcher, raced three wide for the closing 1200 metres outside two of the greatest stayers in Australasia and lengthened stride with ease at the top of home stretch to win.

Equine athletes usually cannot give a start and comprehensive beating to an outstanding field of free-for-all pacers but then again Elsu has a habit of rewriting racing logic.

Elsu started off a 20 metre handicap and sat three wide outside Young Rufus and The Falcon Strike.

He treated that pair as if they did not belong on the same racetrack as the muscular Falcon Seelster entire.

After watching the race replay a further three times, Butcher sat back and basked in the glory of one of the greatest achievements recorded by a New Zealand-trained harness racehorse in Australia.

"Straight after the race I was buzzing more over the fact that we had won the Hunter Cup as opposed to the way Elsu won the race," said Butcher.

"It was only when I got back home to Cambridge and watched a replay of the race a few times and took into account things like the 20 metre handicap we started off and the sectional times recorded off the front that I realised how huge a winning performance it was.

"We sat outside great free-for-all horses like Young Rufus and The Falcon Strike and when I asked Elsu to sprint he cleared off from the field in a matter of three to four strides.

"When you go back through his career and look at most of his victories I haven't had to drive him so aggressively to win a race.

"I've usually given him a sit off the pace and used his powerful sprint finish to great effect but he is the complete racehorse to drive.

"He has gate speed, can sit on or off the pace and, more importantly, he can make his own luck during a race and rough it when we need to improve our racing position.

"When you're competing in a race carrying stake money of $450,000 there is no point in driving for luck and I put him in the race last Saturday night in the Hunter Cup and he was trucking along when most of the opposition had had enough."

Butcher and trainer Geoff Small now have one race date and race firmly in their minds.

The $750,000 Mach Three Inter Dominion Pacing Grand Final will be held at Alexandra Park on March 18.

The two week racing series will see 39 of Australasia's leading free-for-all pacers compete in three rounds of qualifying heats on March 4, 8 and 11.

The leading 13 point scorers after the three qualifying rounds return to Alexandra Park on March 18 chasing the $750,000 Grand Final prize money and bragging rights as the Inter Dominion champion.

Butcher has some daunting words leading into the Mach Three-sponsored series.

"The last two times I have driven Elsu he has felt like he could do anything I ask him to do during a race. He seems to have turned a corner in his performances since winning the Auckland Cup [December 31] and he'll be hard to beat racing from his home environment and at Alexandra Park."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY