Chase A Dream (outer) has become pacing's rollercoaster horse. Credit: Trish Dunell.
New Zealand’s chances of having a serious Inter Dominion pacing contender this winter could be finalised at a quiet Pukekohe trial meeting on Tuesday.
That is if any horse can be termed a serious contender for going to Queensland to take on local champion Leap To Fame on his home track at Albion Park.
The Inter Dominions move to July this year and revert to two rounds of heats on July 5 and 12 for the July 19 pacing final for A$1 million.
The stake increase will go some way to helping return the credibility of the series but the reality is most of New Zealand’s best pacers simply aren’t good enough to even make the trip.
Merlin and Don’t Stop Dreaming are both in the paddock and not even nominated for the series while Republican Party is but won’t be going unless something happens to rule Leap To Fame out of the series.
“That is why we are leaving him in for now but, basically, he won’t be going unless some major names, most obviously Leap To Fame, come out,” says driver Carter Dalgety.
“And even then that would need to happen soon because after this week he would have been spelling too long to get him back up and fit enough for the series.”
While horses like Pinseeker and Beach Ball, who has transferred to Sydney trainer Luke McCarthy, could start in the series the only Group 1-winning contender New Zealand still has is Chase A Dream.
He has become the great enigma of New Zealand harness racing, wonderful some weeks but woeful others.
The four-year-old doesn’t have to go down the traditional Inter Dominion path as trainers Mark and Nathan Purdon have accepted an invite to the Rising Sun on the first night of the carnival and if he wins that Three and Four-Year-Old race he will basically be invited straight into the Inter Final two weeks later.
The problem is nobody, not even one of the greats of all-time in Mark Purdon, knows what to expect from Chase A Dream.
He was supposed to race at Alexandra Park last Friday but was too highly rated compared with his rivals so wasn’t allowed to start, hence he heads to the Pukekohe trials on Tuesday.
“At this stage Queensland is still on,” Purdon the Herald.
“He’d obviously need to trial ok and if he does he will be on a plane with Oscar Bonavena and Rubira on Sunday.” That would see the trio land in Sydney and go by road to Brisbane in the hope of gaining consistent racing leading into the series.
“We are still keen to take him and Oscar will be going as this is possibly his last season and it is a big stake [A$500,000] for the trotters.
“Rubira was one of our better three-year-olds until he got hurt in a trackwork incident but he will go with the two open-class boys and race in the Derbys.”
Purdon knows just how awesome Leap To Fame is as Chase A Dream finished second to him in his stunning Race by Betcha win at Cambridge before the latter’s form fell off a cliff.
“We are hoping he can get to Queensland and get into at least one easier lead-up race away from Leap To Fame so maybe we can get his confidence back up,” says Purdon.
“We toyed with the idea of not going but we still think he is good enough to be there.”
Oscar Bonavena may have taken loyal punters on a rollercoaster ride this year but the Inters could be his last shot at big-time glory, especially with doubts over trotting series favourite Keayang Zahara, who is drifting to turn up in Brisbane.
If the young superstar doesn’t head there then Oscar Bonavena and Rowe Cup winner Bet N Win look two of the few realistic chances in the series alongside TAB Trot winner Arcee Phoenix and highly talented Victorian mare Susan Is Her Name.
While Republican Party is long odds to go to the pacer’s series his juvenile stablemate Fugitive looks certain to get a slot in the A$500,000 Ladbrokes Protostar on July 12 especially if he wins the Welcome Stakes at Addington this Friday.
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.