By Michael Guerin
If you want to back the best four-year-old trotter at the Harness Jewels on Saturday you have a selection of bad news to deter you.
You could be put off Marcoola in the $100,000 Ruby because he hasn’t won a race this year.
Or that he hasn’t actually run a place in three of his last four starts.
And even that he was, by his own standards, pathetic when finishing second last at Addington last start.
But the worst, most daunting piece of information about the horse who all but conquered champion Monbet in November is what happened after that dramatic recent Addington failure.
“He came back in to the stabling area and by the time we had the gear off him his heart rate was back down to 60 beats per minute,” says driver Clint Ford.
“So basically he didn’t have a race, he didn’t try.”
As much as Ford hates admitting his best ever horse dogged it at Addington last start, and it is not the first time.
“He did it once in a trial as an early three-year-old, he just didn’t try because things didn’t go his way.”
Since that day Marcoola has tried plenty of other times and showed great courage in his epic war with Monbet. So Ford is still confident he can find that appetite for a fight again before Saturday.
“We had him checked out after the Addington run and he was sore over his back so we have had that worked on and I think if has helped.”
The Ashburton workouts last Saturday would suggest a pain-free Marcoola was more like the horse who won two Derbys last season and distanced an open class field at Cambridge on Christmas Eve.
He was quick off the gate, built up a good head of steam and won by eight lengths in a 1:56.5 mile, albeit getting a bit tired at the line.
“He needed that and felt far better than at Addington,” says Ford.
“He can go quicker because that was his first big hit out for a while and he did it under his own steam.
“That workout was part of waking him up, getting his mind on the job for this week.” Marcoola isn’t the only hotshot four-year-old in Saturday’s trot with no doubts over their ability but question marks nevertheless.
Lemond, who nearly won the group one Anzac Cup in April, galloped in that workout last Saturday, while Wilma’s Mate may need a late driver replacement if David Butt doesn’t pass his medical examination tomorrow.
That leaves the relatively inexperienced Dark Horse as the favourite because Rowe Cup winner Temporale is drawn wide and has only raced once left-handed this season.
Temporale looks one of the better each value chances on Saturday based on form alone but trainer-driver Tony Herlihy isn’t thrilled by his wide front line draw.
“It is wide enough but he has does have good gate speed so hopefully we can get handy,” says Herlihy.
“We took him to Addington on Monday when Mark (Purdon) worked a whole heap of his and he handled the left-handed track well and seems where he needs to be.
“So I’d like to be drawn handier but if he can slot in somewhere he should get his chance.”
Herlihy has also picked up the catch drive on impressive Alexandra Park winner from last Friday night Gotta Go Dali Queen, who beat some class older opponents and is not the worst place chance in the three-year-old filly pace.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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