Racing: Mama Mia what a finish

Two men who have never trained a racehorse won the Auckland Trotting Cup for Mi Muchacho last night.

The amazing grey pacer grabbed favourite Mainland Banner right on the line in the $300,000 race, with Lord Vader a gutsy third after missing away, just ahead of Alta Serena.

The win was remarkable as Mi Muchacho had not raced since December and his season almost appeared to be over when was struck down by soreness.

His trainer Richard Anderson could not find what was causing the five-year-old to pace roughly under pressure and had almost written this season off. Until three weeks ago.

That was when he was introduced to a father and son team of equine chiropractors, Graeme and Rick Boyd, who saved Mi Muchacho's career.

The pair discovered the root of all Mi Muchacho's problems was soreness in his neck region and once they worked on him he was transformed.

"What they did for this horse was incredible," said a stunned Anderson after the race. He changed his whole attitude once the soreness was worked out of his neck and he has become a different horse."

Anderson took the unusual step of putting Mi Muchacho in the race with virtually no preparation after he worked brilliantly a fortnight ago.

But he admitted he thought the pacer couldn't win.

"On Wednesday he was sore from the treatment they gave him on Tuesday so I thought we were in trouble.

"And I also doubted he had had the work needed to win. But he did it."

Mi Muchacho put himself in a position to win with a quick beginning that saw him settle second before forging to the lead.

He then trailed Alta Serena, who later handed up to Mainland Banner and it wasn't until late that Mi Muchacho emerged from the ruck to score the most unlikely of wins.

While Mi Muchacho's win left little room for excuses, Mainland Banner's driver Ricky May blamed himself for the great mare's defeat.

He eased her around the last bend, hoping to keep key rival Alta Serena from getting up a head of steam and May said that gave the others a chance.

"She may have looked beaten at the top of the straight but that was because I was trying to outdrive Alta Serena.

"It was my fault, if I had gone 50m earlier I think I would have won," said May, who was being more than a little hard on himself.

May was also critical of the standing start, in which Mainland Banner was almost knocked out of the race by Imagine That, who swung sideways as the tapes were released.

"They have got to do something about these starts. We should stand further back and walk up."

Lord Vader was another who was slow and his run for third was enormous while second favourite Alta Serena simply wasn't good enough after having the run to win.