by Michael Guerin
Considering Lazarus won last year’s New Zealand Cup by 10 lengths in race record time, suggesting he might be better now borders on insanity.
But judging by what he did in the Kaikoura Cup today there may be some method in that madness.
The champion pacer was totally crushing in the $50,000 event, sitting parked outside second favourite Titan Banner before racing clear at the top of the straight to smash Terror To Love’s national 2400m standing start record.
Terror To Love, himself a three-time New Zealand Cup winner, set that record at rocket speed in Ashburton and Kaikoura, with its flat bends is not as fast, so for Lazarus to trim 0.6 of a second off the record sitting parked around four bends is breathtaking.
So much so he is now set to start the hottest favourite in New Zealand Trotting Cup history at Addington in 15 days.
The TAB re-opened him $1.55 to win the Cup after Monday’s demolition, but someone soon took a $20,000 bet, so he is now rated a $1.50 chance, unchartered territory for any of the great horses who have contested our most famous race before.
Lazarus didn’t have to beat his classy stablemates Heaven Rocks, Dream About Me or Have Faith In Me today with all three likely to have their final Cup lead-ups at Addington on Friday night instead.
But Titan Banner has been one of the form horses of the spring, and while he beat him by two lengths he did so after covering six lengths more and at a stage of his campaign where he is still to be honed down to his best.
Which might be why trainer-driver Mark Purdon gave a rare whip salute at the finish, even he realised what Lazarus did was truly odd.
The reigning Horse of the Year is now likely to have his last public hitout before the Cup, in the Cup trial at Addington on November 8 and those willing to take the short odds for the Cup can at least relax about his draw, with virtually no chance he can draw the second line because the Cup probably won’t have one.
Earlier in the day pretty boy trotter Bordeaux showed he is right on target for the Dominion at Addington on November 17 when he led for the last mile of the South Bay Trotters Cup to win easily.
While he was always the trotter to beat once he lead, the fact he held his gait in tight quarters going into the first bend, suggests he is a more mature horse than last season, and will be awfully hard to catch in Addington’s premier trot.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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