Racing: Reid's young guns fire winning shots in NZ Derby

Gold Ace outslugs Terror To Love to win the NZ Derby at Addington. Photo/ Supplied

The talents of one young gun from the Steven Reid stable were instrumental in realising the talents of another in the New Zealand Derby.

Gold Ace captured the $200,000 classic at Addington on Saturday, wearing down Terror To Love to cement 3-year-old of the year honours.

In a season when New Zealand's best pacers have been outshone by their Australian rivals, Gold Ace could even have a shot at the overall pacer of the year title.

His Derby win comes after he overcame a similar bad draw to win the Sires' Stakes Final at Addington in November before he won the Elsu Classic and Sales Series Pace at Alexandra Park in December.

However, between those wins and Saturday's victory the wheels came off Gold Ace's season briefly and that forced trainer Reid, who part-owns the colt, to take a step back from his training.

"He got a virus at the Victoria Derby meeting and to be honest I think I was too close to him by that stage to fully realise the extent of it," said Reid.

"I had been spending every day with him, doing all the training and when you own part of him, like I do, what I wanted to be happening and what was actually happening were two different things."

Enter stable foreman Simon McMullen and a fresh perspective.

"Simon said to me straight after Victoria that the horse wasn't right and when he failed in his Northern Derby heat I told Simon he was right and he should look after the horse for a while.

"So he basically trained him, treated him and did all the work with him for a month or six weeks and just treated him as you would any other horse.

"And as you can see he did a great job. It was a case of me getting too close to the horse so this is as much Simon's training win as it is mine."

While McMullen is developing a useful career as a junior driver, Reid's long-term belief in the youngster's potential as a trainer is worth noting.

After all, Brendon Hill underwent a similar tutelage with Reid before going on to be one of the most feared trainers in the country.

Gold Ace will now remain in the South Island until the Harness Jewels in June and then could be set for revenge over Aussie star Sushi Sushi, who dominated the Victoria and Northern Derbys.

"If he goes to Australia for the Breeders Crown in August then he won't be seen again until next year, which suits me as I want to give him a lighter 4-year-old season."

While Gold Ace and Terror To Love staged one of several great home-stretch wars on Saturday night, the performance of Major Mark in third was magnificent, after he was checked early.

His trainer Mark Purdon had a night of near misses, as I Can Doosit bowed narrowly to Stylish Monarch in the NZ Trotting Championships, although nobody could begrudge the winner after his luckless Interdominion series.

And Purdon also just missed with Alberto Contador in the Welcome Stakes, going down to Orl Black, the winner continuing a fine juvenile season for trainer Cran Dalgety.

Later, Power Of Tara gave trainer Brendon Hill a rare driving success when he won the free-for-all pacer but Hill would have left the track anything but comfortable with stable star Monkey King, who was again dreadful and look a shadow of his real self.