By Michael Guerin
The driving force behind exciting trotter Bolt For The Hill knows he can run with the best of a vintage crop of three-year-olds.
But co-owner and driver Steph Burley also knows that may not be the best thing in the months ahead for the impressive Alexandra Park winner.
Bolt For The Hill made it three wins in his last seven starts when he led throughout against the older horses in the Lone Star Alexandra Park Mobile Trot on Friday night, trotting a 1:57.3 mile with plenty in reserve. He already looks an open class horse in the making but finds himself in a wonderful crop of three-year-olds.
The son of What The Hill was good enough to finish fifth in the Northern Trotting Derby in May and is clearly better now but Burley, who owns him with her mother Heather, needs to decide whether they go looking for trouble against the best of the best at Addington in a month or two.
With slots for THE ASCENT filling fast if Bolt For The Hill was going to head south this year it would probably be for the NZ Trotting Derby, which is looking one of the strongest ever but Burley says it isn’t the quality of opposition that worries her.
“I think with the right run he could run top three against those horses, even though Keayang Zahara makes it tougher again now she is coming,” she says.
“But we also have the Golden Gait Final up here which plenty of those good three-year-olds won’t be eligible for so it might be the best thing for him to stay up here because he is still learning all the time.
“Still, we don’t need to make that decision yet.”
With her regular driving of Bolt For The Hill and a few others for his trainer John Dickie, many racing observers would presume Burley works for Dickie but the reality is far from it.
“I work as an accountant in the [Auckland] city,” says the 28-year-old.
“I was working full time with horses when I lived in New South Wales, where I drove 16 winners, and when I came back here in 2021 I thought I might be done race driving and just drive track work for fun occasionally.
“But this fella was being a pain as a young horse so I told John I was happy to come out and spend time with him since he was our horse and now I go there and drive two mornings a week.
“So it definitely isn’t fulltime but I love it and it has been great to get some other winners for John too.”
Friday night’s win was Burley’s ninth back in New Zealand from only 58 drives since she returned.
Put another year or 18 months on Bolt For The Hill and Burley could be driving in Rowe Cups and the best other open class races as even among this superb crop his improvement curve has been one of the steepest.
Other highlights at The Park included Meant To Be overcoming a tardy start to win the juvenile trot while his stablemate Duchess Megxit was scintillating winning her Nevele R Fillies heat, pacing her last 800m in 53.8 seconds, one of the fastest sectionals ever recorded at the track.
And earlier co-trainer Dave McGowan capped a great fortnight for he and wife Clare when Dave partnered It Ain’t Me Babe to win the first trot in 1:59.7 to dip under black type time.
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