A poser for Pace: to stay or go?

Melbourne harness racing trainer Joe Pace and his owners have a dilemma we’d all love to face regarding two of the stable stars.

The decision revolves around whether to campaign interstate or stay home in Victoria with grand circuit pacer Supreme Dominator (Bettors Delight-Galleons Supreme (Christian Cullen) and talented youngster Justalittlesip (Franco Ledger-Justasip) – and to be fair, there are probably no wrong answers.

“We are going to have to sit down and really assess it,” Pace, of Melton, said.

“There are some great races in Queensland during their Rising Sun carnival. It’s also a bit of a lure because we’ve been there on holidays before, but we’ve never raced horses up north,” he said.

“Supreme Dominator could go around in the Redcliffe Cup and then there’s the Blacks A Fake feature event at Albion Park.”

And undoubtedly both the Redcliffe and Queensland Derbies would be suitable races to aim at with Justalittlesip, the stable’s recent acquisition purchased from New Zealand.

Justalittlesip is a lightly-raced gelding, yet to have his first start in Australia, who won at Ascot Park in early November and recording two third placings and three fourths in his only other race appearances.

“I’ve been impressed with his work. He seems very handy and so far gives me a good feel. The horse was placed behind a smart one in Duke Of Cornwall at Winton,” Pace said.

Duke Of Cornwall was reportedly sold for $500,000 and won at Newcastle at his first Australian start recently for champion NSW horseman Luke McCarthy. The “Duke” has now won five from 11 career starts for $35,000.

Pace said he’d spoken with Queensland industry officials about a planned trip.

“They have been so helpful with travel plans and finding stabling for us.  I’ve said from the start that the only way I’d go would be if we could get flights,” he said.

“Supreme Dominator is a bad traveler and just doesn’t settle. He never settled well when we went to Sydney for the Chariots and that’s certainly in the back of our minds.

“He may have matured a bit and benefited from that trip. But it’s a flip of the coin. Do we bite the bullet and take the risks? On the other side of the ledger there’s some great races in Victoria which we could target.”

Supreme Dominator has 13 wins and 20 placings from 53 starts for more than $278,000. In his latest victory in the Cranbourne Cup last December, the pacer defeated Amazing Dream, who recently won in the USA on debut.

Pace said Supreme Dominator was “ticking over very nicely.”

“He came back from the water walker in great condition and has been home jogging for a while now. I’ve just started to stretch him out and run him along a bit,” he said.

“We’re sort of going through the motions. Justalittlesip is at about the same stage.”

Supreme Dominator is raced by Charlie Sant and Sam Castro, while Sam also owns Justalittlesip.

“I’ll probably be suggesting to the owners that I’ll work and prepare them for Queensland, which is still a few months off. Then we can all sit down together, think it through, and assess what’s best for the horses from there.”

Pace has a team of 13 in work with a few young ones to come in.

“It’s come to the stage where I need extra help, so I’d love to hear from any stable hands out there looking for work!” he added.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink