Racing: Franco Nelson heads north

Franco Nelson will add plenty of much-needed depth to the northern pacing scene. Photo / Peter Meecham

Speedster gets invitation to Mile in Sydney after holding off rivals in Free-For-All

Robert Dunn sees a silver lining to Franco Nelson's controversial Miracle Mile snub.

Now the New Zealand Cup runner-up can be the flag bearer for his North Island satellite stable, which opens this week.

Franco Nelson was passed over for a Miracle Mile invite at the expense of Terror To Love, who got the second Kiwi invite to next week's A$750,000 race, even though Franco Nelson beat him twice last week.

Dunn says that while he would love to be going to Australian pacing's richest sprint he isn't losing much sleep over the snub. "Sure, we would love to have him there but we could also go over, draw outside horses like Beautide and have no chance.

"That decision is made and we have Auckland to concentrate on with him now as well as the Hunter and Victoria Cups later in the summer."

Franco Nelson will have plenty of stable company when he comes north this weekend, with Dunn and son John, who train in what is basically an unofficial partnership, sending six horses up.

They will be stabled at the new Lincoln Farms property in South Auckland after owner John Street moved his harness racing operation from West Auckland.

"We are privileged to get some room at John's place because he does things well," says Dunn. "And the time has come for us to have a more permanent base in Auckland.

"I have a lot of Auckland-based owners who want to see their horses race up there as often as we can.

"And it is getting harder to ignore the stakes at Alexandra Park and the fact they have smaller fields.

"So Franco will lead our team up there with horses like No Doctor Needed and Say My Name among the six we are sending up."

The Dunns won't be the first Canterbury trainers to set up a northern base and most fall over eventually as they struggle for horse numbers or staff who can replicate the main trainer's success in their absence.

The latest venture would seem to have a greater shot at success than most, though, as the horses will be in the care of Matt Bowden, who has had a wonderful strike rate looking after the stable's horses on previous extended northern raids.

"Matt will be the main person up there but, of course, John and I will be making trips up, especially John who will drive them race night a lot of the time.

"The driving can be shared with Dexter [Dunn] if needs be, too, because he drives up there a lot of the summer. We are really excited about it because it gives us more options with our horses. We haven't gone into it lightly and we want to make this a permanent thing."

Franco Nelson has come through his two Cup Week placings well and is being set for a $30,000 race at Alexandra Park on December 5 before having races available to him almost every week until mid-January, especially as the Harness Jewels winner is eligible for Four and Five-Year-Old mixed racing.

He is then likely to head to Victoria and on to the Inter Dominion in Sydney on March 1.

The Dunns setting up shop in the north will be welcomed by Alexandra Park officials as they continue to struggle to attract numbers in their better pacing races.

Trotting races have been of huge benefit to Alexandra Park field sizes, a huge factor in turnover figures, but pacing races stronger than mid-grade still struggle.

The Dunns sit second equal on the trainers' premiership with 20 wins for the season worth nearly $300,000 in stakes. The runaway leader is the Purdon-Rasmussen stable, which has won 36 races from 106 starters and has already banked $994,239 for the season.