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Get ready for a bigger and, possibly, better version of champion pacing filly Adore Me this season.
Co-trainer Mark Purdon realises that is going to have to be the case as the pacing sensation counts down to a clash with Bettor Cover Lover at Alexandra Park in December.
Adore Me made her first public appearance of the season at the Addington trials yesterday and even from a 40m handicap easily beat her older male opponents in the 2600m trial.
While the time was slow, Adore Me cruised her last 400m in 27.5 winning by 2 lengths over classy stablemate All Star Man and looks stronger than last season.
That is ominous considering her performances last term stamped her one of the best pacing fillies of all time, her only defeat coming when a brave second in the action-packed Northern Derby.
Adore Me will return to racing at Ashburton on October 28, when she sneaks into a c0-c6 class mobile mile for mares on a class six assessment.
Then, Purdon faces some tricky placement issues as he prepares to take on Bettor Cover Lover in the group one Queen of Hearts at Alexandra Park in December.
As a class seven pacer, providing she wins at Ashburton, Adore Me would need to take on virtual open-class opponents in most races, so Purdon will try to negotiate a path comprising mainly mares' races.
"I haven't looked into it too much with her, we will see how Ashburton goes and take it from there," he said.
"But she looks great and has been working really well.
"Still, she will need to be come December because Bettor Cover Lover is a genuine open-class horse."
Bettor Cover Lover has been flown to Perth for a series of races there in November but will return to try to win her third Queen Of Hearts.
While Adore Me is ready to race, champion trotting stablemate I Can Doosit is still jogging in his comeback from surgery last season.
"He looks well and we are happy so far," said Purdon.
"He could race before or around Christmas in the north, whereas Escapee is likely to head to Melbourne for the big trotting races there."
Meanwhile, northern stewards will not charge new starter Frank Phelan after a false start mix-up at Alexandra Park on Friday night saw the last leg of the $100,000 terminating Pick6 abandoned.
Phelan, on his first full night as the northern starter, failed to call a false start to the 1700m mobile trot after a front-line galloper checked second-line horses in the score-up.
Some drivers pulled their horses out of the race after the red light indicating a false start flashed briefly but the race was run before later being abandoned.
Stewards and the JCA looked into the possibility of re-running the race but logistically that was deemed to be impossible so it was abandoned and the Pick6 paid out on live units after five legs.
Stewards were relatively understanding about what they saw as a simple mistake, albeit one they wouldn't want to see repeated, and the incident has been left in the hands of the Auckland Trotting Club as an employment matter.
The debacle was an unfortunate start to the new role for Phelan, who is a well-qualified trainer and now amateur driver himself, as well as hugely popular inside the stabling area.