By Michael Guerin
The recipe for Harness Million pacing success at Addington on Friday seemed pretty simple. Buy a yearling by Bettor’s Delight, give it to a good husband and wife training team, lead in the rich sales race and then go collect your money.
It worked a treat for both I’m The Boss and Tour Party in their $150,000 and $200,000 finals respectively on one of the code’s biggest nights.
It was I’m The Boss who got first crack at the big NZBS-backed money when she worked her way to the front and never looked like being beaten for Hayden and Amanda Cullen with Blair Orange in the sulky.
“She still has a bit to learn but she is very good,” said Orange.
I’m The Boss is of course bred to be good, being out of nine-win mare Hopes And Dreams, herself a daughter of Harness Jewels winner One Dream. And she is by The King, Bettor’s Delight, just like another Southland-bred in Tour Party. He had looked our best juvenile for much of the season but being beaten in two of his last three starts has dented his reputation.
But driver Carter Dalgety, doing the job for parents Chrissie and Cran, gambled that good horses can bounce back from defeats so he drove Tour Party like last Friday’s unplaced run never happened in his $200,000 this week. He was straight on the top end and given an easy time had way too much in the tank for a very brave Bamm Bamm and the terribly unlucky Faith Not Fear, who flew home once clear for third. The win also earned Tour Party’s large group of owners the $50,000 Next Gen bonus, the Dalgetys having claimed one in the fillies race too with Suva Baby in third.
“Credit to everybody at the stables, nobody panicked and tried anything different after last week,” said Carter.
“We just believed in the horse and he had the draw to show that.”
The Dalgetys were at it again later in the card with Cherish Me in the Hilarious Guest. She overcame a second line draw with a powerful display to push through and lead inside 800m and hold out Secret Wish in a race that sets up the three-year-old fillies races in the next two months beautifully.
While it was a nice aid for the big pacing race winners to be on the markers the trotters seemed to enjoy doing it the tough way on Friday. First it was Imperious Girl who sat parked to win her $25,000 trot like the very good filly she is before northerner Duke of Bourbon was enormous in the juvenile trotting Harness Million. While favourite Eyes Wide Open had worked to the lead Duke of Bourbon first behaved himself, no small feat after a false start, and then simply over-powered the leaders coming wide in the hands of Zachary Butcher.
“Barry and Scotty have done such a great job with him and to be honest he felt as good on the line as he did at the 800m,” said Butcher of the $240,000 yearling who has it all in front of him.
Also doing it tough but in a far harder trotting grade was Prestigious, who sat parked outside hot favourite Habibti Pat and beat her fair and square in the Renwick Farms Trotting Classic. That earned him his place in the Renwick Farms Dominion Trot for the couple of trainer Jonny Cox and driver Kimberly Butt and you get the feeling he is a fair way from finding his ceiling yet because he was outstanding. So too was third placed Mighty Logan though, with his third off the 20m mark in a hard run race the run of a horse who might, just at this moment, be the best trotter in the country.
And just to top off the Bettor’s Delight theme of the night his daughter Utah Jazz won the $50,000 Southern Mares Classic for trainer-driver Nathan Williamson.