by Michael Guerin
Temporale is ready to close the gap on his arch rival Lemond at Alexandra Park tonight — the question is will he close it enough?
The north’s emerging open class trotters clash in the feature 1700m mobile race at a truncated meeting tonight, with Lemond having clearly outpointed his five-year-old buddy last start.
But on that occasion Lemond had the benefit of two searching prep runs whereas Temporale was fresh up for the season, with trainer-driver Tony Herlihy adamant he is taking a fitter horse to the races tonight.
“He has grown a lot since last year and is a really big horse now so he needed that fresh up run,” says Herlihy of last season’s Rowe Cup winner.
“So I think he will be better and I think the mobile 1700m will suit us but whether we close the gap all the way on Lemond is hard to know until we get out there.
“But I think if we don’t beat him this week we will go very close.”
Lemond does look both stronger and more mentally mature than last season though so could easily win again, with the pair having already established a great rivalry, one northern trotting fans will be hoping continues for a few seasons yet.
The other class act of the night is Motown, who should win race six as his 30m carded handicap is now actually only 20m with the scratching of the sole front marker.
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