Racing: Tilt at final may be a bit premature

John Dickie hopes his gut instinct is wrong. Because if it isn't then his stable star Romper Stomper can't win Sunday's Interdominion Trotting Final.

The Cambridge trotter has emerged as the dark horse in the A$200,000 feature after huge improvement during the series.

Just a week ago he looked in danger of missing the final because of his gallop in his first round heat.

But he was looking a far more relaxed trotter last Saturday when he chased home Delft in the final heat of the series.

That has seen him shorten to $17 with bookies and he looks one of the few winning chances off the front line in the 3050m event.

All of which should have Dickie feeling pretty good about his chances on Sunday.

The only problem is, Dickie has been around top trotters his whole career and knows that they almost always take a season in the elite ranks to adapt.

Romper Stomper has had only a handful of starts against the best in the business.

"I just think, deep down inside, that maybe this is a year too soon for him," admits Dickie.

"I am not saying he can't win because he has come a long way in a short time. But maybe he has come too far too quickly."

Romper Stomper started the summer a highly promising mid-grade trotter and won his way into open class beating inferior horses off handicaps.

He has won just once in the open grade and even then he was lucky, as Delft, who was hot favourite in that race, was hampered with a broken sulky.

Dickie fears that because of his unusual path to the top Romper Stomper may not have learned the skills needed for Sunday's great race.

"Off the front line our best chance would appear to be stepping and making the 10m horses work but I don't think he is ready to do that.

"I am not sure he is mature enough to work at the start and still hold out horses like Delft and A Touch Of Flair.

"Ideally, what I would like to see happen is him have a quiet run in the middle of the back and try and outsprint them but that is not how you win races on this track.

"So we are up against it a bit. If this race was in a year's time I'd be a lot more confident.

"In saying that I am thrilled to have him in the final and he will learn a lot from this trip."

Victory on Sunday would bury some Australian demons for Dickie.

He used to train and part-own Last Sunset, a national record holder in New Zealand who was luckless in Australian features.

He won a host of minor races here as a 3-year-old but was robbed of the Victoria Derby with an injury on the eve of the race.

He then returned to Australia in outstanding form for new trainer Mark Purdon in 2001 only to run into a rampant Lyell Creek in the Australasian Championships.

When big Lyell left a month later to head to the Northern Hemisphere, Last Sunset looked set to dominate open class trotting.

He started a hot favourite in the 2001 Interdominion Trotting Final at Albion Park but any early gallop cost him his chance against a newcomer to open class - New Zealand's second only trotting millionaire, Take A Moment.

"It would be fair to say we haven't had a lot of luck over here in the past," sighs Dickie, "but maybe one day this horse with change all that."