“But I was impressed driving this horse last week and if he races up to that he is the one to beat.
“Tony’s horse [Youneverknow] was good winning his heat too and he is the one we have to beat.”
Butcher says the early fireworks could decide the race.
“Higher Power has been a little funny a couple of times at the start and galloped a couple of starts ago drawn down low.
“I think he will be okay but that start will obviously determine whether he can lead or not.”
The two 3-year-olds should really dominate the race if they behave, as it is hard to see any of their rivals trotting past both of them, should they be handy.
But there is enough depth into the contest to suggest it will be a hot form reference in the weeks ahead.
Butcher has plenty of time for South Side Story, his drive in the $35,000 TAB Pacers Metro Final, but says his best work is still in front of him.
“He is a lovely horse but the penny is still to drop for him so he will keep getting better,” he says.
“That is quite a good field and I drove Carrera Hombre, who was quite unlucky last week when I got held up, so he will be hard to beat from the ace.”
Later in the night, Iron Love looks one of the better bets when well suited by the mobile trot, after beating most of its rivals tonight, including Halberg and Butcher last start.
Cullens hold Addington key
Hayden Cullen isn’t sure the bookies have got tonight’s feature race market at Addington right.
Because the Canterbury trainer and his wife Amanda train both the favourites and he says there is little between the pair.
The Cullens prepare Hadron Collider (R7, No.7) and Trump Card (No 2), who dominate the market for the NZBS Weanling Sale June 26 Pace, the $20,000 main race tonight over the 1980m.
TAB bookies understandably opened Hadron Collider the $1.80 favourite after his recent second to Sideshow Bruce in the Uncut Gems and an overall body of work that has seen him race many of our better intermediate grade pacers this season.
Blessed with high gate speed, he could head forward and even wrest the lead off his stablemate but Cullen says it may not be that cut and dried.
“He is a good horse and has to be hard to beat,” he says of Hadron Collider.
“But I don’t think there is as much between them as some people might think.
“Trump Card is a horse we always liked last campaign and he has come back better this term.
“He might be stronger too and should be at peak fitness now after three runs so there isn’t a lot between them this week and either can win.”
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.
