By Michael Guerin
Cran Dalgety couldn’t he happier with Christen Me heading into Saturday’s $250,000 Auckland Trotting Cup — it is just the opposition he isn’t thrilled with.
The Canterbury trainer says the $2.4million earner is working as well as he ever has leading into the 3200m group one and he wouldn’t change a thing. But that may still not be good enough to win.
“I have been thrilled with a couple of his recent runs, but we just keep meeting one better,” says Dalgety.
“Three starts ago you would have thought he was enormous running second in the (NZ) free-for-all but Lazarus was just unbelievable.
“And then last start here in the Franklin Cup I was thrilled with him again but Titan Banner just outstayed him.
“He feels great, is working well and is actually running times like he always has but the reality is the best horses of Mark and Natalie’s are simply going better.
“They are having a freakish run and while we haven’t given up beating them this week, on paper it is hard to make a case we will.”
Christen Me is the $12 fourth favourite for the Cup, with his half-sister Dream About Me heading a trio of favourites from the All Stars barn alongside Titan Banner and Chase The Dream.
That trio have age on their side, with Dream About Me and Chase The Dream only four-year-olds while Titan Banner is a lightly-raced five-year-old, the veteran of only 32 starts.
The younger, fresher legs have been the most potent in New Zealand harness racing in the last 12 months, with Have Faith In Me winning this Cup last season, Lazarus the New Zealand Cup last month and Monbet dominant as a four-year-old trotter last season and then Marcoola doing the same in the champ’s absence this summer.
“It feels a bit like that. My horse feels as good as when he was winning Miracle Miles and when he won this race two seasons ago but the younger horses have gone to another level,” says Dalgety.
“It is a bit like our horse is Dan Carter and some of the others are Beauden Barrett.
“So I am not saying we can’t beat them. But we might need some luck.”
Christen Me’s improved standing start manners this season should ensure he gets that luck as he should settle handy, possibly even on the markers pegs, which would give wonder driver Dexter Dunn plenty of options.
But the reality is while he looks a picture and his performances would be excellent coming from most other horses, Christen Me hasn’t been as razor sharp as when he went on his Miracle Mile-Victoria Cup-Auckland Cup winning rampage two seasons ago.
One rival who seems to have slipped even further, again without any identifiable reason, is last season’s Auckland Cup runner-up Hughie Green.
This time last year he led the Cup till the last few strides and it took a rampant Have Faith In Me to deny him, with Inter Dominion hero Smolda in third.
Hughie Green has only shown glimpses of that form since and trainer Brian Hughes says he is happy with the big horse but his racetrack performances have lacked bite.
“When you look at his last two runs he has probably paced his personal best times,” offers Hughes.
“So I can’t be disappointed with him. Maybe the opposition has just gotten better?
“But I think he will step away and put himself in the race so he will get his chance.
“Can he win? I hope so, but he would need things to go his way.”
While Dream About Me ($2.20) and Titan Banner ($2.60) battle over Cup favouritism, there is no such dispute in a couple of Saturday’s other big money races.
Marcoola has come up an jaw-droppingly short $1.20 to win the National Trot even from the outside of the front line, while Ultimate Machete is $1.19 to win the $200,000 Sales Series Pace.
Which almost makes the $1.38 for Spanish Armada in the Sires’ Stakes Championship Final seem like a decent price.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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