By Matt Markham
He might have broken a New Zealand record over the weekend, but even that wasn’t enough to keep Locharburn out of the naughty boy’s paddock on Sunday afternoon.
The Kevin Chapman trained pacer left tongues wagging with his performance to win the Summer Cup at Addington on Friday night. The big brute stopped the clock at 3.06.5, bettering the previous national mark held by Messini by more than half a second.
But Chapman spends most the 48 hours following any race for the son of Christian Cullen, holding his breath as he knows that’s the critical timing in which any indications of a return of injury may surface.
“It can get a little stressful sometimes,” he admitted.
So when he let Locharburn out into his paddock on Sunday, Chapman couldn’t help but smile, even if it was only for an instant, as his pride and joy took off at full speed across the paddock – clearly showing no evidence on injury nor tiredness from his effort on Friday night.
“He actually went a little bit crazy, so I had to put him in the naughty boy’s paddock to try and get him to calm down.
“But he’s bounced back from the run incredibly well.”
And while many basked in the afterglow of the effort, and in particular the time in which it was paced, Chapman was a little more realistic.
“To be fair they should be going close to that mark every time. But because we tend to back off in the middle stages in most of our 2600 metre races, it just doesn’t happen.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m rapt with his performance, but those are the times he needs to be running if he’s going to competitive against the really good ones when that time comes.’’
So what now?
First Chapman will sit back and watch with interest as Locharburn’s full-brother goes through the sales ring at Christchurch next week.
Lot 419 on the second day of selling in Christchurch and named Cullerburn, the bay colt is being offered by Paul Walton and Helen Conaghan and is being prepared by Karen O’Conner.
Already an interesting prospect for the sale based on his big brother, the colt’s residual value should have spiked a little higher following last Friday night’s effort.
Once he’s been knocked down, Chapman will then start carefully plotting his plan toward the Easter Cup.
“He is unlikely to race again before then.
“What I learnt from last week was that I can get him ready without racing him now.
“That was seven weeks in between runs for him before last week and he did off the back of a trial.
“I’d probably look to have a couple of workouts or trials before the Easter Cup and then we can look at the Rangiora Classic.
“But because I haven’t asked him to go to the well too many times this season I can take it easy with him during winter and then have him ready to tackle those big Cup races in the Spring.”
Chapman’s only concern is a lack of opposition in the Locharburn’s two final hit outs for the season.
The Easter Cup should get off the ground due to its $100,000 price tag, but the question will be how many turn to face the starter.
Just something else for Chapman to hold his breath about.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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