By Michael Guerin
Heaven Rocks may have finally met his match at Cambridge tonight.
Because the goof with the mega motor is being paired up with Brent Mangos is what looks an inspired catch driving choice for the $60,000 Cambridge Flying Mile. Heaven Rocks will be the warm favourite for the sprint even though a dash around Cambridge hardly seems ideal for the long-striding pacer and his erratic ways.
He won a Jewels over a mile there 19 months ago but that was a three-year-old and he seems even more eccentric now, not to mention he has two genuine speedsters drawn inside him in Star Galleria and Jack’s Legend.
But enter Mangos, the Mr No Nonsense of the northern driving ranks and the master of the balance-em-up-and-launch-em school of driving. Mangos has been called in as the All Stars usual drivers head home or in the case of Mark Purdon to Perth tonight to drive Lazarus. So Mangos has been entrusted with getting Heaven Rocks away, around the first bend and then deciding when to push the button.
He looks the ideal driver for the job but while he sits behind the most talented horse in the race it may not be a simple stroll around Cambridge for the mad mammoth. Star Galleria was a brave fourth, just behind Heaven Rocks in the Auckland Cup last Sunday and Jack’s Legend sixth after missing away. Both are wicked sprinters with natural gate speed so should have a huge tactical advantage over Heaven Rocks. If you can back the pair at an average of $5, giving you basically a $2.50 bracket to beat Heaven Rocks, it wouldn’t be the worst bet.
Heaven Rocks isn’t the only big name catch drive for Mangos tonight as he has also picked up the reins behind Kyvalley Blur in the Flying Stakes Trot after the Victorian trotter’s three huge runs during this New Zealand campaign. He has been beaten twice in as many meetings by a race rival tonight Temporale so far this summer but both runs have been excellent and if he could stay in front of the favourite he can severely test him, so against Mangos’s aggression could be an asset.
Trainer-driver Tony Herlihy is using tonight’s race as a trial to confirm Temporale’s trip to Victoria later this month and says the left-handed track won’t be an issue even though only four of his 21 starts have been anti-clockwise for one win.
“He does a lot of work left-handed and I don’t think it will be an issue,” says Herlihy. “But it could be a tricky little race with Kyvalley Blur drawn inside us. Still, my fella is well.” Herlihy has a vastly-improved second string in The Almighty Johnson, who from barrier one could get the perfect trip. He has really stepped up and with that right trip I wouldn’t be stunned if he tested the two favourites.”
Meanwhile, Lazarus should be too good again when he returns to racing in a A$22,000 event in Perth tonight. He has drawn two in the 2536m mobile and should win without Mark Purdon needing to ask for his best, with stablemate Ultimate Machete set to be even shorter in the race before.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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