By Matt Markham
Paul Nairn isn’t afraid of trying something that others might hesitate about.
He’s renowned for producing horses at the races who haven’t had a workout or a trial and them then performing well.
On Sunday the master horseman will step into new territory when his exciting two-year-old trotter Conon Bridge takes on the older horses in the feature trot at the final Ashburton meeting of the season.
Unseen at the races since he galloped and blew his chances in the Two-Year-Old Ruby at the Harness Jewels the imposing son of Raffaello Ambrosio will be out to right the wrong on the same track this weekend.
While unraced, Conon Bridge has been sighted in two trials.
He ran second to All Lit Up at the start of the month at Ashburton and then was victorious earlier this week at Rangiora beating Danke and Prestine.
The speedy wee trotter covered his last 800 metres in 58.9 seconds – signalling he is ready for his resumption.
But as is always the case for a younger horse taking on older opposition the task won’t be a simple one.
He comes up against an even field of C1 and C2 trotters with plenty of them in strong form.
Jean Sebastien narrowly missed out on in victory in last week’s Darren DeFilippi Memorial at Addington, losing out by a short head to Arran Chief who franked that form by bolting at Oamaru on Sunday.
The rangy son of Love You looks to have finally put everything together and is stringing together some strong performances with that looking set to continue on Sunday.
Also out of the Darren DeFilippi comes Galleon’s Royale for Colin and Julie DeFilippi.
The former Dave Anderson trained trotter looked likely to snare a placing last week before galloping when heading down into the passing lane – a complete performance is required, but with it she is right in the fight.
Eilish Aimee, who finished third fresh up last week will also pose a threat for the Edmonds training combination of Craig and Aimee while the ever-consistent Sarah Palin is sure to give a strong account of herself.
Earlier in the day the Steve Dolan trained Tintinara will be looking to continue her good form when she tackles the Winter Cup.
Dominant at Timaru the speedy filly should be too slick for her opposition again this week with the incomparable Dexter Dunn in the sulky.
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