By Matt Markham
Perfection, it’s a hard word to achieve in any sport. Our beloved All Blacks go close to achieving it every now and then. In harness racing it’s a little more common.
You’ll see the odd trainer take a couple of horses to the races and walk away with a couple of winners – think Kyle Austin at Rangiora a fortnight ago or Ken Ford at Motukarara in September.
But with the bigger stables it can be tough. Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen took 12 horses to the races at Ashburton yesterday and nearly pulled of the unthinkable feat of winning every race they had a runner in.
They ended with six winners, three seconds (two of which were quinellas) and a third.
Not a bad day at the office is it? Of course we have come to expect exceptional things from one of arguably the greatest racing stables in the world right now, but even Purdon admitted to being a little shocked at how well things panned out.
“I thought we had a good team in with a quite a few winning chances. “But to win six is quite incredible really, everything just feel into place beautifully.’’
Choosing a highlight from such an incredible day should be a tough task. Purdon had no such problems.
Because while winning with Prince Fearless, Itz Bettor To Win, GI Joe, Arden’s Choice and Cash N Flow was great, it was Smolda who stole most of the affection.
The new New Zealand Trotting Cup favourite established himself as the top dog a fortnight out from the Cup with an effortless victory in the Ashburton Flying Stakes – making light work of the efforts of the likes of Ohoka Punter, Tiger Tara, Mossdale Conner and Sky Major in the process.
In a stunning 53 second last 800 metres the big pacer looked like he was doing jog work as he sprinted clear to claim success in the ultimate Cup lead up event. “He did it pretty easy,’’ Purdon said. “So much so in fact that he actually wanted to knock off when we ran to the lead.
“He’s got a habit of doing that every now and then though so I’m not too concerned.’’
Camped just off the speed early while Tiger Tara and Mossdale Conner locked horns in front of him, there was only ever one horse you wanted to have your money on when they turned for home and if you’d known how confident Purdon was feeling at the same point you would have mortgaged the house, car and significant other to get in on the action.
“He was absolutely bolting and I never really had to ask him to fully extend other than when he switched off.
“Everything did fall into place for us though, we had to do no work early and then got the perfect run into it.
“I couldn’t have asked to two better runs in his first two starts really.’’
Bookmakers reacted to the performance by shortening Smolda into $3 for the Cup, clear of both Sky Major and Christen Me – the latter of whom was missing from yesterday’s assignment.
It’s been the perfect build up for the Cup for Smolda and Purdon said the chance to build up toward the race without any real interruption has been great.
“We have had a lot of issues with him in the past but touch wood this time in things are going great.”
That’s great news for the horse’s owners, Phil and Glenys Kennard, Neil Pilcher and Marcus Kirkwod. In behind Smolda there were just as many happy faces.
Tony Herlihy was rapt with the performance of Ohoka Punter who stalked the leaders throughout while Ricky May was finally feeling vindicated in his opinion of Mossdale Conner’s form with his third placing.
Tiger Tara, who worked very hard to get the lead with a mile left to run was far from disgraced with his fourth while Sky Major hit the line with authority in fifth spot pleasing Zac Bucther.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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