Tact McLeod to race in Jones name

“Mark looks after us very well so I’ll probably put him in his colours,” says Southland pacer Tact McLeod’s (Sweet Lou) current harness racing trainer Trevor Proctor.

Tact McLeod has been domiciled at Mark Jones harness racing stables at Burnham in Canturbury, and the five year old gelding is being prepared by Jones for the $1,000,000 IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup.

The five year old gelding won the Group Two $60,000 Lamb and Haywood Canterbury Classic at Addington on Friday night and gained automatic entry into Novembers feature, so the Cup now becomes the target.

“I was always 50/50 on it, thinking that another year could be beneficial. But after that performance we’d be silly not to have a go.”

Tact McLeod is a relative newcomer to this grade of racing with Friday night only his seventeenth start. He’s struggled to master the stand starts.

“The cord getting around his legs in the Wairio Cup really set him back, but now you can see him starting to run before they’re letting them go. Since he got up to that level pretty quickly there is always the thought of is he ready? But after Friday night you would have to say he is. He’ll certainly handle the two miles, but to be competitive you need to start well.”

Prior to Friday night’s win Tact McLeod had been starting off the unruly mark but his connections decided to take him off that start point for Friday’s feature.

“That wee scramble away may have cost him a length but that proved to be beneficial to him. It was the perfect run for him.”

Driver Sam Ottley got Tact McLeod into the one one early as Franco Marek led. Heading into the last 600 metres of the race Ottley looked to be in trouble with horses improving on her outside. But once the field lined up for the run home she brought the gelding five wide, pulled the headgear and he let down nicely to win by a length and a quarter from a brave Franco Marek.

TACT MCLEOD REPLY

Prior to Friday night both Tact McLeod and Franco Marek have been driven by John Morrison. Proctor and Morrison had talked about which horse Morrison should commit to and decided that because Franco Marek was definitely aiming to run in the Cup and Tact McLeod wasn’t a certainty, he should commit to the former.

“You couldn’t kick Sam off after that performance could you (laughter).”

Tact McLeod was the first horse to win the Canterbury Classic since Prince Rashad in 1996.

Procter confirmed Tact McLeod won’t be heading to the Ashburton Flying Stakes.

“He’ll need a run before the Cup and at this stage the thoughts are that we’ll go to Kaikoura. He goes well fresh, so a little spell won’t hurt him. Mark said he put on 10kgs between the last two runs. He handled Friday night’s race well and seems to be in the zone.”

Tact McLeod is raced by Proctor and his partner Diane Dynes and he wears the Dynes colours. Those colours were to the fore in the 1960s when worn by Tactile which was  trained by Diane’s father Derek. Tact McLeod and Tactile share the same sixth dam.

Eleven horses that have won the Canterbury Classic or as it was previously called the Miracle Mile, have gone on to win the New Zealand Cup; Lunar Chance 1975, Lord Module 1979, Bonnie’s Chance 1982, Master Mood 1986, Chokin 1993, Monkey King 2009 and 2010, Lazarus 2016 and 2017 and Self Assured in 2020.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink