Horse racing: Olivia Thornley climbs into hottest seat

A young driver who sits just 42nd on the national premiership has been handed the hottest of hot seats at Ashburton today.

Olivia Thornley will partner three of the brightest stars trained by her bosses Mark and Nathan Purdon after Mark Purdon was suspended until New Zealand Cup eve.

The 23-year-old will drive Akuta in the $60,000 NZB Flying Stakes, unbeaten filly Millwood Nike as she chases 16 wins in a row in her Nevele R Fillies heat and Oscar Bonavena in the Trotter’s Sprint.

She will also partner one of the favourites in Major Hot in the juvenile pace. So for all the great junior drivers New Zealand has produced over the years, not many would have had a four-drive book as powerful, or as heavily-backed, as what Thornley finds herself behind today.

She has driven Oscar Bonavena in his last two wins and has also partnered Millwood Nike in three of her wins, but today will be her first race drive on hot New Zealand Cup favourite Akuta, who she has driven to win a trial.

The Purdons had the option to look for more experienced drivers for Akuta and Millwood Nike in particular but wanted to avoid repeated chopping and changing as today’s engagements are primarily a case of Thornley keeping the sulky seat warm for Purdon.

While the quiet young reinswoman doesn’t drive a lot, she handled herself perfectly when asked to steer Millwood Nike as part of a driving treble at Addington on October 5 and Mark Purdon says he is confident she is up to today’s tasks.

“She has really stepped up to the plate when she has been asked and I am sure she will on Monday too,” says Purdon.

It helps that Akuta has now developed into potentially the best pacer in New Zealand and was able to sit parked and win last start.

So providing he steps well in the 2400m feature today Thornley should be afforded some respect.

The Auckland Cup winner is by no means over the line in the Flying Stakes but outside fitness-improving stablemate Self Assured it is hard to make any case for his other rivals beating him.

Millwood Nike (R6, No9) faces maybe the greatest challenge of her career from the outside of the gate over 1700m with rival trainer Steve Telfer already declaring second favourite Aardiebytheseaside will be staying in front if she leads early.

Millwood Nike sat parked to win a similar race for Thornley in her comeback three weeks ago but with her rivals capable of a 1m 52s or faster mile rate today, the superstar filly may have to dig deep to maintain her clean sheet.

Thornley faces less pressure with Oscar Bonaneva even after he divebombed Muscle Mountain to stun punters at Addington last start, because the favourite is $1.40 to avenge that defeat.

Muscle Mountain (R11, No3) may have got into the habit of taking the last 100m of his races too casually so his camp have added sliding blinds to his gear to give him a mental prod when driver Ben Hope activates them.

“We have tried them on him in his work and they made him concentrate better the last 200 metres,” said Hope.

Add to those races high-class juvenile boys and girls pacing events, the Hambletonian Trot for 3-year-old trotters, the Sophomore Classic for 3-year-old male pacers and star mare Aardie’s Express (R10, No14) — and Ashburton undoubtedly hosts one of the strongest harness meetings of the year.

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.