By Matt Markham
Not many can say they went to war with Stent inside the final 200 metres of a race and came out on top.
One Over Da Moon can though.
The little trotter with the massive motor caused arguably the greatest upset of the lead up to Cup Week 2015 by lowering the colours of Australasia’s best trotter, Stent, in the Ashburton Trotters’ Flying Mile yesterday at Ashburton. The Tony Herlihy trained and driven five-year-old was clear cut and decisive in his victory in the Group III event and those in behind him had absolutely no excuses.
The decision by the horse’s owners, Lex and Heather Williams, to send him to the Auckland stable of Tony Herlihy back in June has paid massive dividends with the son of Majestic Son winning his last six races. It’s no black mark on the name of Paul Nairn though, but just another success story of a horse turning the corner with a change of environment and in One Over Da Moon’s case he went from a handy open class trotter to a serious major race contender.
“He’s definitely getting better and better,’’ Herlihy said. “He’s a more hardened version of himself each time we go to the races, but you need to be at this level.
“What he possesses is incredible toughness, but he matches that with a handy turn of foot too.’’
Both attributes were on show yesterday as One Over Da Moon burned from the mobile gate to find the lead and he then effectively bullied his rivals into submission with three even quarters of 29 seconds before flattening out up in the lane in 27 to win the 18th race of his 45 start career.
“Once we got to the front and were able to dictate the race the way we did I thought he would be a chance.
“I did think Stent was going to run past us half way down but to my guy’s credit he kicked and was pretty determined.’’
A winner now of more than $250,000 in stake earnings, One Over Da Moon will head to Cup Week with a serious scalp next to his name – one which is sure to see him become a more feared force in the trotting features.
In winning too he managed to achieve something his brilliant dam, One Over Kenny was unable to do by taking out the Ashburton feature.
The outstanding mare twice lined up in the race, finishing down the track on one occasion and was then late scratched by stewards after the race a few years later after a gear malfunction in the score up behind the mobile saw her out of contention.
While beaten, Stent was far from disgraced. He came from a fair way off the speed at the 600 metre mark and although looking set to run straight on by he fought hard to the line.
Habibti, who enjoyed a nice markers run throughout looked much more like her old self when running third – sounding a warning for Cup Week while Australian visitor, Vincennes was solid in running fourth after enjoying the trail.
In his first run against the top liners, Monbet was far from disgraced in running fifth and keen eyes would have spotted both he and Kincaslough putting in some solid work late in the piece to fill out the tail end of the first six past the post.
Greg Hope confirmed after the race that the Dominion Handicap was off the table for this year with the exciting Monbet but they intend to tackle the New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All on Cup Day.
Kincaslough will miss the FFA with a view to heading straight to the Dominion, while the jury is still out on whether Stent will race on Cup Day or not too.
The question mark out of the race was again Sheemon who was well beaten. He trailed Stent into the race and did gallop for a short distance at the top of the straight.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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