By Matt Markham
Two of the top four ranked horse’s for this year’s New Zealand Trotting Cup spearhead the nominations for Friday night’s Maurice Holmes Vase at Addington.
Last season’s New Zealand Free-For-All winner, Tiger Tara and Easter Cup winner Locharburn are ranked three and four respectively on the order of entry for the Cup and will both be in action on Friday night.
Coming in fresh, off the back a couple of quiet trial performances each, the pair are expected to improve considerably with their run on Friday night but both should still be competitive.
Gerard O’Reilly, who drives Tiger Tara, said his effort for fourth behind Locharburn last Wednesday at Rangiora was satisfactory considering the pacer’s tendencies to goof about in trials and workouts.
“He went alright, it was a set forward from the previous run,” O’Reilly said.
“It’s a little hard to get a line on him sometimes because he does muck about it.
“We know he usually takes one race to really come to it in fitness so we are going to have a better line on where we are at after the Maurice Holmes.”
Locharburn was impressive winning his trial and looks well forward for trainer Kevin Chapman. Dexter Dunn was on board in that trial last week and is expected to drive this Friday night.
He will eventually be forced into choosing between the big pacer and Christen Me when the latter returns to the track, potentially in October.
“We won’t be rushing into any decisions that’s for sure,” Dunn said.
The first step on the path toward the November 8 feature, the Maurice Holmes Vase carries a direct entry into the Cup for the winner.
While that might not be quite as important for Tiger Tara and Locharburn, it does carry some importance to the likes of Franco Nelson who is ranked 10th.
A Cup runner-up two years ago behind Adore Me, the Robert Dunn trained pacer will need to show early form to enhance his prospects.
Also with some ground to make up is the progressive Seel The Deal.
The Greg and Nina Hope trained pacer has been brilliant winning back-to-back races since joining the barn and his current rank of 22 for the Cup is up for improvement if he can continue that form this week.
“I think he’s working towards that top grade for sure,” Greg Hope said.
“He’s got all the makings of a true open class horse, but he’d need to with what we will have to face this season.”
Southland pacer, Costa Del Magnifico, will begin his Cup campaign in the race as well.
The Brent Shirley trained pacer, who won the Invercargill Cup last season, hasn’t been seen publicly since winning at Invercargill back in April.
Friday night’s feature trot will see the resumption of a number of horses who are gunning for a spot in this year’s Dominion Handicap.
An in-form Amaretto Sun leads the list but with Sunny Ruby, Sheemon, Valmagne and Bordeaux joining the ranks things are set to be tougher this week for the Ken Ford trained runner.
Nominations for Friday night’s meeting have been left open and will close on Tuesday morning at 9:30am.
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