Merlin waves the wand

Merlin (Art Major) returned to his winning ways in the 100^th running of the Kaikoura Cup today.

The five year old entire hadn’t had a win since Show Day last year when he won the NZ FFA. Not that it worried his trainers Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan who were building with the long game in mind.

“We needed to stand up today and put ourselves in the picture for next Tuesday and he did that, that’s for sure,” Purdon said.

The Purdon/Phelan training partnership was confident of a good showing after Barry drove him in his last serious workout last week.

“He worked terrific. He’s got a wonderful attitude and puts it all together.”

Today’s Cup was just what the large Kaikoura crowd had come to see, as Akuta who had led for most of the way, had to withstand one final challenge.

“I knew he’d keep going. He’s in a good space, his fitness is good. I knew he wouldn’t falter, he’d keep going.”

At the end of the 2400 metre there was half a length between the two great foes.

MERLIN REPLAY

“What a run. I know how hard it can be around Kaikoura. We burnt down the back and Mark shot away from me at the top of the straight but I always had a handful of horse. I was thinking ‘time your run -don’t go too early.’ It’s too hard to pick them up when you’re going wide round that last bend so I wanted to get close to Mark when I could. He stuck to his guns and he was just outside the record,” winning driver Zachary Butcher said.

The winning time of 2-54.8 was .5 of a second outside of Lazarus’s 2017 winning time of 2-54.3.

“To get his one today for Barry, Scott and Dean (owner Dean Shannon) is pretty special. I think this is the first winner I’ve driven at Kaikoura so it’s taken a few years.”

Barry has trained three other Kaikoura Cup winners – Final Curtain (1976) with his father Roy, Tight Connection (1990) and Pic Me Pockets (2001).

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink