KEY POINTS:
Monkey King has struck a judder bar on his road to the New Zealand Trotting Cup.
Just a day after the Addington classic was upgraded to $750,000, trainer Steven Reid wasn't exactly counting his winning percentage when Monkey King again showed his dislike for standing starts at the
Alexandra Park workouts.
The five-year-old blew the start of yesterday's main 2700m workout, leaving him to trail his rivals home as Cup favourite Changeover produced a perfect standing start debut.
Changeover stepped beautifully and paced his last 2400m in a quick 3:2, his final 400m in 27 seconds, to down fellow New Zealand Cup nominees Power Of Tara and Foreal.
It was a faultless transition to open class competition for the great horse, who will trial again next Tuesday before heading south on Wednesday.
While his Cup campaign has started on the right foot, Monkey King doesn't seem exactly sure where to put his feet - not for the first 50m of a standing start race, anyway.
He missed away for the second time in a week and although he pleased trainer-driver Steven Reid with his performance afterwards, the clock is most definitely ticking.
"It is not ideal but we are not panicking," said Reid.
"He is a very hyper sort of horse and we are hoping that a race or two will settle him down.
"We also have a few more things to try at home but the bottom line is if he doesn't go away, he doesn't go away.
"At some stage we will have to make a decision on whether he is going to be a standing start horse this season but the Cup is still the aim."
Monkey King's inability to step safely appears to be his only Achilles heel and the major worry to those looking at taking the $8 fixed odds.
At his best he may be the fastest pacer in the country over 400m, but that isn't much good if he is going to be conceding the other superstars 50m in his standing start outings.
Monkey King will still contest the Spring Cup at Alexandra Park on Friday week, in which he could clash with Awesome Armbro, Sly Flyin, Foreal, Marika and Mi Muchacho.
The latter returns to racing at Cambridge tomorrow night.
Monkey King's stablemate Baileys Dream, unbeaten in two races this season, takes on Flashing Red in the Hannon Memorial at Oamaru on Sunday, a meeting which also heralds the reappearance of champion trotting mare One Over Kenny.