NZ HARNESS NEWS
Otago pacer Titan Banner continued his march toward the second Tuesday in November with a bold win in Sunday’s $35,000 Methven Cup under the Southern Alps.
The Graeme Anderson-trained pacer, who won the Hannon Memorial in September, added another slice of silverware to the cabinet for his proud band of owners with his dour victory in the Group 3 grass track event.
Driven confidently by Dexter Dunn, the son of Art Major was nursed through the first lap of the race before being allowed to work around the field and find the front inside the final lap.
Dunn controlled the tempo from there before dashing up the Methven straight to win impressively.
“He felt really good today,” Dunn said.
“That’s the best he’s felt and you can really see he is starting to come to it; he’s finally losing his coat properly and starting to look like a serious racehorse.”
While it may have all looked relatively pedestrian, Dunn revealed after the race that things nearly came unstuck around the final bend.
“He actually slipped and galloped for about three or four strides. I thought that was us.”
Titan Banner will now head likely head towards the Kaikoura Cup on October 30 before the New Zealand Trotting Cup next month.
“We’ve had a good build up with him and now that he’s starting to look like the real deal, we are on the right track.
“It’s only going to get harder from here though, but he’s in the right space and is a horse who will thrive on the distance – you would like to think he’s at least a top four chance in the Cup.”
While comfortably beaten, race favourite Dream About Me will have lost no respect with her effort for second off the 30-metre mark.
Tim Williams allowed the mare to slide forward on the back of Titan Banner with a lap to run and was happy to sit parked for the final 1100 metres and she didn’t shirk the fight up the Methven straight.
Seel The Deal, who led early, battled away well for third placing.
One of the runs of the race came from the fifth placed, James Dean who galloped away but staged an impressive recovery to run on stronger than anything else at the end of the 3000-metre journey.
The New Zealand Trotting Cup-bound Classie Brigade was scratched from the race on Saturday night with a swollen leg, trainer Nigel McGrath not one hundred per cent sure how serious it is.
“It was bad enough to scratch him, I’m hoping it’s just an abscess that will burst and we will be ok,” McGrath said.
Earlier in the day, Dominion Handicap contender Habibti Ivy was narrowly defeated in the feature trotting event for the fillies and mares.
The DG Jones Trotting Cup winner started off a 50 metre handicap but was unable to peg back Breenys Cullen who led for the last lap of the race for Matthew Williamson and Kohika horseman Noel Taylor.
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