by Michael Guerin
Call Me Trouble is going to be given another crack at the big time but this time on the track he loves.
The Zachary Butcher-trained trotter overcame a 35m handicap to record the ninth win of his career in the $8500 main trot at Cambridge on Wednesday night, breaking 2:48 for the 2200m.
Butcher has tried Call Me Trouble is semi open class races before but he has found them just a touch too tough but he will give him another opportunity in the two big trots coming up at Cambridge in January.
“It has got to the stage we have to have a go at them again,” Butcher tells HRNZ.
“He won well tonight because it is never easy off a big handicap and he has the ability to run with those top horses but he had hard runs against them a couple of times at Alexandra Park and that set him back a bit.
“But back down here he feels more comfortable so he can have a crack at those races on January 7 and 13.”
That may mean taking on both Bolt For Brilliance and Temporale again after they contest the Greenlane Cup this Friday but as Butcher points out, being a nine-race winner Call Me Trouble really has no other option but to keep going back in the handicaps at Cambridge, where he has now won four times.
He is one of just two horses Butcher officially trains and he was hoping to bring Zarias back with him from Cambridge on Wednesday night but father David will prepare him for some legs of the Country Cups Championships.
“I was keen to take him back but Dad wasn’t keen just yet,” laughed Butcher.
“So he will tackle a couple of the grass track races and try to qualify for the Country Cups Final.” Butcher has been without his usual boss Ray Green in the last fortnight and will be so for maybe another two months as Green is stuck in Victoria with an injured Copy That.
“Obviously we would all love Ray to be able to get back but Andrew Drake has taken over some for the organising while Ray is away and he is doing a great job.
“He is a very thorough horseperson and given the opportunity I think he is going to be a good trainer.” Earlier in the programme Ruby Ridge made it back to back wins since joining the Peter and Vaughan Blanchard team with an effortless victory in the lower grade trot.
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