KEY POINTS:
Tim Butt is taking a cautious approach to the return of serious harness racing at Addington tonight.
Butt will produce two of the open class stars from his powerful stable for the first time since autumn in tonight's Ordeal Cup, a trotting feature matched later in the night
by the $20,000 Avon City Ford Cup for pacers.
While Butt will keep his star pacers on hold until the Hannon Memorial at Oamaru, he is pleased to finally have Roydon Flash and Lotsa Speed back in tonight's big trot. "It has been a long haul this winter and to be honest I haven't been going to the races much," he said.
"But now the good horses are back we should start having some fun."
Both Roydon Flash and Lotsa Speed made significant strides in open class last season and they sit just outside the top trotters in the country.
Butt says they can break into that elite group this season but will both be going into tonight's 2600m mobile event with plenty of improvement left.
"I have taken that approach with my whole team this season. It is going to be a long open class season for them all and I don't mind if they don't peak in the first month.
"After all, once we are through Cup time down here [November] we still have big races all over the North Island and Australia to chase."
Roydon Flash and Lotsa Speed worked well in private at Addington last week but did not perform up to that level at workouts last Saturday.
"It was nothing serious, just a few small things that needed ironing out.
"There isn't a lot between them on ability but I think Roydon Flash may be the better chance this week."
The pacing cup will be the highlight, with the winner guaranteed a start in the $1.2 million New Zealand Cup on November 11.
That has been enough to lure northern speedster Zenad south for the race and he can test the key southerners, Special Ops and Ohoka Rebel.
Special Ops was impressive returning with a win last start but Ohoka Rebel was just as good finishing second after being savaged in front.
But they would not want to work too hard as Zenad has a potent sprint.
The race has been robbed of some interest with the scratching of former star juvenile Ohoka Arizona, who was scheduled to return from injury. He is in good condition but trainer Mark Purdon has elected to miss the race.