Hotspur’s back, but Alford playing down chances

Former top harness racing youngster Kyvalley Hotspur (Muscle Hill) has failed to make an impact on the track since his brilliant three-year-old season, and his driver Chris Alford thinks it might take a couple of runs before we see the Group 1 winner back near his best.

The Brent Lilley-trained squaregaiter won both the Victoria and New South Wales derbies in 2021, but failed to fire in four starts as a four-year-old the following season.

He returns for his first start since August in Saturday night’s Opus Group Trot at Tabcorp Park Melton, where he will begin from inside the back row with Alford at the controls.

Alford joined Tim O’Connor, Darren Carroll and David Moran on this week’s episode of Burning Questions, and was asked about his thoughts on Kyvalley Hotspur.

“I haven’t driven him for a fair while, since early in his three-year-old year,” he said.

“He had a great three-year-old campaign, but next time in he didn’t seem to come up. He should have sort of been where (Aldebaran) Zeus and Queen Elida are at this stage I would say.

“He had a trial at Ballarat a couple of weeks ago and went okay but not great, so I think he’ll take a couple of runs.”

Kyvalley Hotspur’s last win was back in 2021 when he defeated top rival Ollivici in a heat of the Breeders Crown Series.

Alford will also partner Aldebaran Zeus – a stablemate to Kyvalley Hotspur – in Saturday night’s feature, the Group 2 Aldebaran Park The Knight Pistol.

The race is the second last leg of the Aurora Australis, with Aldebaran Zeus third in the series standings behind overall leader Just Believe.

“I think (owner) Duncan (McPherson) is pretty keen just to go flat tilt like we did in the Bendigo Maori Mile race and prove how good he is,” Alford said.

Rob Auber will join caller Dan Mielicki, Steve Cleave and Shannon O’Sullivan for Saturday night’s coverage on TrotsVision, with the first race of 10 set to go at 5.59pm.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria