By Jonny Turner
Southland star U May Cullect ticked up two firsts with another crushing win at Ascot Park on Monday to keep his unbeaten race record intact.
The Kirstin Barclay and Paul Ellis trained freak show easily handled his first standing start, before smashing his rivals by five and a half lengths, in his first start past 2200m.
Barclay produced another pinpoint drive behind the exciting 5yr-old in the 2700m Bluff Cup, waiting until the 500m until she asked U May Cullect for an effort.
Once he wound in to stride, his rivals had no answer for U May Culect’s sizzling speed.
“You still don’t feel like you are going fast,” Barclay said.
“It sounds a bit silly, but he just does it so easy.”
“When I started mooching around to be parked, I thought I better get moving, because he felt like he was walking.”
U May Cullect has shot up the harness racing grades so quickly he is effectively an open class pacer.
That means a shot at the New Zealand Cup is a possibility for the horse.
Though the Barclay and Ellis have not got ahead of themselves and finalised any spring plans, the 3200m of the race should be perfect for the horse.
“I can’t wait to go over with two miles (3200m) with him because he just falls asleep,” Barclay said.
“I really think he will thrive over the two mile trip.”
U May Cullect’s excellent beginning, in what was his first standing start, gave his trainers extra confidence he could be targeted at any standing start feature in the spring.
“He was on his own, so he is still going to step up when there are horses around him,” Barclay said.
“But, he was pretty cool about the whole thing.
The listed Uncut Gems event for four-year-old and older pacers at Addington on June 14 will be U May Cullect’s next target.
Incredibly, the five-year-old should strip an even better horse for the 2600m feature.
“We had had a bit of a problem with greasy heel and the tides had been against us for the last two weeks.”
“So, we couldn’t follow our usual routine with him.”
“This run should top him off nicely for the Uncut Gems.”
U May Cullect stopped the race clock at 55.8sec for the final 800m 27.2sec and for the final 400m.
Those times are taken from the leading horse and as the pacer was behind runners, he has run faster than those sectionals suggest.
U May Cullect was privately timed to run his last 800m in 54.6sec and 400m in 27.1sec.
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