By Michael Guerin
Now Colin De Filippi knows how Cran Dalgety feels.
De Filippi is the man behind last season’s champion trotter Stent, who started this term with the trotting world his to dominate but has been racing like a misfiring sports car.
Which mirrors the form of last season’s champion pacer Christen Me, trained by Dalgety, whose spring form was good, but not good enough. And definitely not great.
So the two open class superstars of last season have cost punters plenty and left their trainers battling for answers.
While Christen Me’s plunge saw him head to the paddock, meaning he won’t defend his Auckland Cup at Alexandra Park tomorrow, Stent will be there for the National Trot and what De Filippi says if the definitive race of his season.
“He definitely wasn’t good enough at Cambridge last week,” says De Filippi of Stent’s lacklustre third in the Flying Mile as $1.10 favourite.
“After 50m, when Prince Fearless galloped, you couldn’t have had enough money on my fella. He should have been way too good.”
Instead Stent was clearly outshone by Valmagne and Quite A Moment, who wouldn’t have got near him at his best last season when he was winning groups one on end.
“I think he is at least three lengths down on last season and I can’t work out why.
“So this week is crucial. If he comes out and wins or goes better than we will stay for Cambridge next week and then head to Aussie.
“But if I am not happy with him on Thursday we will go home and reassess things.”
Stent is only third favourite behind four-year-old upstarts Monbet ($1.95) and Speeding Spur, who is surprisingly short at $3.80 for his first start in four months and his open class debut.
De Filippi doesn’t mess around when assessing the group one.
“If Monbet goes as good as he did last start I think he is almost a certainty,” he offers.
Monbet’s major concern for some punters will be the fact he follows out Prince Fearless, who galloped early at Cambridge last Thursday but
the latter’s co-trainer Mark Purdon doesn’t expect a repeat of that.
So don’t be surprised if Monbet’s $1.95 opening price is gone by tomorrow morning.
De Filippi wasn’t the only Canterbury trainer disappointed in a feature race at Cambridge last Thursday who is going into tomorrow’s mega meeting scratching his head.
Geoff Dunn was stunned by Tiger Tara’s below par fourth of five in the Futurity, where he lead and was clearly outpointed by Te Kawau and Hughie Green, two of his rivals in tomorrow’s Auckland Cup.
“I don’t know what to make of it,” says Dunn of the NZ Free-For-All winner.
“I thought maybe they went too slow but Gerard (O’Reilly, driver) is telling me is not a leader any more.
“So we are probably going to change the way we approach the Cup because ideally I think he is better with a trail.
“While barrier one suits because he has good standing start manners, if the right horse, like Hughie Green or Smolda move early I think if we are in front we’d take a trail.
“Still, there are a few good beginners on the front line who might have a thing or two to say about that.”
TAB bookies opened Have Faith In Me an impossibly short $2.40 in the Cup, which is simple punting suicide for a horse who has blown all three of his standing starts.
But by under-pricing him they have given punters a chance on stablemate Smolda, whose $4.80 price is more than fair.
Their stablemates Golden Goddess ($1.17) and Lazarus ($1.60) are red hot in the two other huge money races at tomorrow’s twilight meeting.
Lazarus meets Art Form in the $200,000 Sales Series Pace, with the latter having a shock driving change, co-trainer Steven Reid taking the reins.
Markets for the two open class group ones at Alexandra Park tomorrow:-
National Trot: $1.95, Monbet; $3.80, Speeding Spur; $5, Stent; $8.50, Sheemon; $18, Prince Fearless; $31, One Over Da Moon, Quite A Moment, Valmagne; $41, Prime Power; $71, Alley Way, Mum’s Pride; $101, Al Bundy, Charlemagne; $126, Whitney.
Auckland Trotting Cup: $2.40, Have Faith In Me; $4.80, Smolda; $5, Hughie Green; $6, Tiger Tara; $15, Ohoka Punter; $18, Mossdale Conner; $21, Itz Bettor To Win; $26, Te Kawau, Franco Nelson; $31, Besotted; $51, No Doctor Needed; $126, Bettor Dream; $151, Ideal Success.
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