Butcher confident with three tonight

Michael Guerin writes in the NZ Herald that Zachary Butcher believes he can win three of the best races at Alexandra Park tonight even though all three harness racing horses may have to do it the hard way.

As one of New Zealand’s superstar harness drivers Butcher knows better than most the importance of leading and trailing at Alexandra Park but he, like his father David, has also built a reputation from dramatic swooping drives with some of his greatest wins being last-stride nail-biters.

The younger Butcher may need to employ those skills with Call Me Trouble (Superfast Stuart) (R4, No.8), Zarias (Changeover) (R7, No.10) and Gandalf (Captaintreacherous) (R9, No.7), all three clearly good enough to win but likely to be off the speed starting the last 800m.

Butcher works for Ray Green at Lincoln Farms but still trains two horses of his own in Call Me Trouble and Zarias and is confident with both tonight.

“Call Me Trouble has been going really good races off similar handicaps but went through a slight lull patch about a month ago but he seems to be a really good place at the moment,” says Butcher.

“He went well at the workouts last week and with the scratching of the favourite from his race I think he can overcome the 40m even over 2200m.

“It won’t be easy and from a back mark like that you can’t loop them and attack to win but I think if he is sitting midfield on the outer he has to go close as he will have too much speed for most of them.”

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by Michael Guerin, reprinted with permission from the NZ Herald