Racing: Herlihy hoping lesser races will help Bolt For Brilliance

Bolt For Brilliance should be suited to the Alexandra Park carnival.

The Alexandra Park carnival next month will be a watered down version of recent years but that won't stop the north's best trotter.

In fact, champion horseman Tony Herlihy says it may be what Bolt For Brilliance needs.

The two-time Jewels winner is in work at Herlihy's stable after a brave but well-beaten third in Sundees Son's record-smashing Dominion at Addington two weeks ago but without his usual December targets.

With the harness racing calendar being restructured, Alexandra Park features such as the Group 1 National Trot have been moved, leaving next month with a $30,000, $25,000 and $17,500 trot for the open class horses but Herlihy says Bolt For Brilliance will be there.

"He is back in work now and I think a couple of races like that away from the really hard open class racing he has had will do him some good," he says. "The races he has been in have been so tough that to get back into a comfort zone up here and maybe win a race or two will be good for his confidence.

"If he is going well enough, there are a series of good races in Victoria including the Great Southern Star [A$300,000, February 4] which we would look at."

While Herlihy is looking forward to getting Bolt For Brilliance back to the races, he has a handy young trotter returning tonight in Bohemian Rhapsody (R2, No6).

The well-bred filly won on debut in February and was rated good enough to take to Addington for the NZ Trotting Oaks.

"She showed a lot of talent last campaign and she should be stronger now," says Herlihy. "She will get better with more racing this summer but I think she would be better than this grade before long."

Herlihy will bring some of his intermediate grade pacers back to the workouts this weekend so has fresh ammo for next month but has a tidy maiden in Badboybeau (R6, No2) debuting tonight.

Tonight's meeting may lack some star power but it is pleasing to see a two-year-old trot (race five) getting a decent-sized field while the mobile trot (race eight) looks a spirited clash between In Sequence, Liaison and the much-improved Superfast Ninja.

The main harness meeting tonight is at Addington where some outstanding juvenile pacing fillies clash in race three, headlined by True Fantasy, who may be the best of her crop but could be vulnerable from a wide draw.

One of the luckless stories of Cup week in Cyrus (R4, No3) and Stylish Memphis (R7, No8), who is preparing for summer Group 1s on both sides of the Tasman, look likely winners.