Racing: Changeover well placed for victory

Rarely in the past two decades would one of our great pacers have been handed quite the gift Changeover has been at Alexandra Park tonight.

Which, in a strange way, increases the pressure on the star pacer in the $12,000 Kumeu Cup.

If Changeover could read he would be smiling about being off a 30m handicap in the event, a race he could have been expected to start off a 100m handicap in under normal conditions.

While liberal handicaps are the norm these days, a $2.2 million winner and New Zealand Cup race record holder only giving a 30m start to a perennial class two battler like Powerplay is about as extreme as it gets.

Perhaps even more bizarrely, Changeover shares the same backmark as The Adman, who would probably need a 40m start to beat him.

With the small field and 2700m distance, the wonderful pacer should be as close to a racetrack certainty as you will ever see and don't expect bookmakers to open him any longer than $1.10.

But the race still holds some fears for Changeover's connections because he has everything to lose.

If he goes down to tonight's opponents - of whom only Big Dog and Jonny English will ever end up in open class - then Changeover's reputation will take a huge blow.

That may not sound very important but he is in the final stage of his career, with advertising for his stallion career having started.

Defeat tonight would take the gloss of those pretty quickly. And he is two weeks away from the start of the Interdominions, a series which he wants to go into with as much respect as possible.

So don't expect driver David Butcher to be mucking around, even for the small stake tonight and he should win easily.

Strangely, he won't be a Pick6 anchor for punters with the Friday night jackpot heading to the weaker meeting at Forbury Park in a bizarre piece of planning.

Another former age-group star in Ima Gold Digger will also be looking to overcome a backmark handicap in the following race.

Ima Gold Digger remained unbeaten at Alexandra Park when winning fresh-up for new trainer Michelle Wallis two weeks ago and his cause has been aided tonight by the scratching of La Femme D'Argent.

Earlier in the night, the Mark Purdon-trained stablemates I Can Doosit (race three) and Secret Potion (race four) should help him close the gap on the trainers' premiership, with the Purdon-Payne combination trailing the Reid-Rogerson team by three before Cambridge last night.

ALEXANDRA PARK
* Changeover is thrown into tonight's $12,000 Kumeu Cup at Alexandra Park.
* He should justify hot favouritism in his final lead-up to the Interdominions in Sydney.