Racing: Willie best despite dodgy legs

By MIKE DILLON

Craig Thornton looked hard at My Willie Montague early this week and wondered.

He wasn't worried about all of tomorrow's $70,000 Friday Flash Hurdles, just the last 100m.

He knows that will be where his talented, but unsound, jumper will win or lose New Zealand's biggest hurdle race.

Thornton's horsemanship cannot help question whether the knife-edge fitness programme he has had to put My Willie Montague on will be sufficient.

Then he suddenly decides it will be.

My Willie Montague went amiss in a leg preparing for last year's big race and missed the entire winter racing scene.

It's probably easier this time because Thornton and his wife Trudy are aware of the problem and tiptoe around it.

To provide a long, slow build-up, My Willie Montague was put back into work as early as December 1 last year.

"I can't say the preparation has been trouble free, but having said that he hasn't missed any work," said Thornton.

"But he hasn't had the racing I'd like to have given him, because what he lives with now I can't run him on firm tracks.

"He acts on firm ground, but you couldn't risk his leg on it."

My Willie Montague's training has included swimming after track training and regular trips to the Ken and Ann Browne property to work up the hill that has produced countless winter jumping stars over the years.

"I won't know if he'll see out the trip until I put him under pressure on Saturday, but I'm confident he will. He ran the distance of the Waikato Hurdles right out and he's had a lot more [work] since then."

Soundness is not the only problem Thornton has to overcome - My Willie Montague has a frustrating problem of pricking his ears and pulling himself up when he gets to the lead. That's hardly ideal in a race like this.

"He's not un-genuine, it's just a trait he has and you have to watch him - that's why he had 12 seconds when he was racing on the flat."

Thornton rates the two Kevin Myers-trained runners Lucky Tip and Challenge as the dangers.

Lucky Tip has had just three races since he won the 2002 Grand National Hurdles at Riccarton - and they have not been without incident.

When resuming, he was narrowly beaten by Garaina over hurdles at Trentham, then lost rider Rochelle Lockett in the third-last fence fiasco in the Waikato Hurdles.

To top off his preparation for this race, Lucky Tip had a 2200m flat race at Trentham last week, understandably finishing well back.

Myers announced yesterday that South Island jockey Tommy Hazlett has been engaged for Lucky Tip.

Lockett has decided to give herself more time to recover from the sternum injuries she suffered when she crashed heavily in the Nakayama Grand Jump in Japan.

She pressure cooked her return to ride at the Waikato carnival, but realised that was a mistake when she gave her body a nasty shake-up with the Lucky Tip crash.

Al Burkan possibly looks the best each-way value bet. He is tough and extremely fit after five races, which include a grinding hurdle win at Trentham last Saturday.

Trainer Gary Vile believes Al Burkan is much more ready for a big effort than he was when seventh in the race last year.



HURDLES

My Willie Montague is the best horse in tomorrow's big race.

But soundness problems, which kept him from the race last year, still apply.

Craig Thornton is confident he has the horse fit enough to win our biggest hurdle race.