Phelan and training partner Barry Purdon can turn the page quickly as Merlin is back to the more suitable 1980m mobile of the NZ Pacing Free-For-All at today’s reinvigorated Show Day twilight meeting.
With two scratchings inside him he will start from barrier five and Phelan says he wants to see Merlin in front and feeling good to get his mojo back.
“He came through the Cup well and we know he has gate speed so I’d like to see him lead, which might make Republican Party the danger if he sits on our back.”
Crucial players in that early burn could be the Australian pair Catch A Wave and perhaps to a lesser degree The Falcon, now trained by Jason Grimson.
Catch A Wave led and won the Miracle Mile last year but suffers from concentration lapses and driver Kate Gath now tries to cajole the best out of him by driving him quietly.
That would seem a waste of his handy barrier, however, so if Gath fires him off the gate tonight the early fireworks could undo a few of the favourites.
Phelan and Purdon have had a sometimes frustrating southern campaign, including Duchess Megxit getting run down late in her Group 1 on Tuesday after copping pressure.
“Six months ago we were winning everything and now we aren’t but that is racing and we have some really good chances on Friday,” says Phelan.
They include Jeremiah in the new $500,000 pacing slot race The Velocity, in which the stable also have Better Knuckle Up.
“Jeremiah has some gate speed so he could go forward and even lead so he will be hard to beat.
“Better Knuckle Up could need some luck from two on the second line but if Chase A Dream gets a good run through and has any luck I think we all might struggle to beat him.”
The Purdon/Phelan team have favourites in both the juvenile Group 1s today with Meant To Be (R3, No 10) in the Sires’ Stakes Trot and Yourtheonethatiwant (R7, No 3) in the pacing fillies equivalent.
Meant To Be beat leading southern filly Habibti Pat at the trials last week and Phelan says he has matured on the trip, his gait better and his brain more in sync with his legs.
The race has good depth for a juvenile trot but if Meant To Be trots throughout he is the one to beat.
Youretheonethatiwant is an enormously talented filly who never got into her lead-up race at Ashburton but gets a better opportunity to impose her will tonight.
“She is very good but she has a few niggly issues,” explains Phelan.
“But the draw helps and with her peak effort she would be the one to beat.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
