Hunter Cup winner set to emerge from the shadows

Forgotten harness racing star Honolua Bay (Somebeachsomewhere) is on the verge of an unlikely comeback.

The injury-plagued pacer was the toast of Aussie harness when he brilliantly won the Hunter Cup almost 16 months ago.

He followed that with victory in the Group 2 Allied Sprint at Menangle – a Miracle Mile qualifier – before finishing a fantastic third to Catch A Wave in the Miracle Mile itself on March 4, 2023.

Hoof issues related to a nasty quarter crack have plagued him for much of his career and they flared big time soon after that and Honolua Bay hasn’t raced since.

Given his age and what he had already achieved – 22 wins from just 37 starts and almost $900,000 in earnings – it would have been easy for owners Bill and Anne Anderson and co-trainers Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin to retire him.

It’s a measure of the huge opinion they have of Honolua Bay and the fact he was still relatively young at the time (he’d just turned six) they have kept persisting.

Honolua Bay has been close to a comeback a few times, but the issues flared again.

While he’s not over the issues and never will be, Stewart said he’s as good as he’s been since he last raced and has passed just about every test ahead of a return to racing.

“He was going to trial at Ballarat last Tuesday, but the rain came and they said the track surface wasn’t suitable for trials,” Stewart said.

“We ended up taking a group of our own horses in to work with each other instead.

“We couldn’t have been happier with him (Honolua Bay). He worked super. All his old speed is there and he ‘won’ the workout really well.”

Onlookers clocked Honolua Bay to run his last half in around 53.5sec.

Stewart was so happy with the work, she confirmed Honolua Bay would join the stable’s growing team of stars headed for the Queensland Constellations riches in Brisbane early next month.

Honolua Bay’s speed makes the $200,000 Group 1 Sunshine Sprint on July 20 a logical target, but having won a Hunter Cup, he’d be suited in the longer $400,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake the week after.

The question is, has time passed him by at the very top level?

Moreso, has Leap The Fame lifted the bar to a new level he will find hard to match?

Stewart and Tonkin are realists and know what lies ahead in Queensland. If they think he’s worth taking north, you have to respect that.

At his top, Honolua Bay is lethal when stalking.

The potential for Leap To Fame and his older sibling Swayzee to lock horns again like they did in last year’s Blacks A Fake is very real.

And the best version of Honolua Bay is one of few pacers who could potentially stalk that pair and dive-bomb them late.

Honolua Bay will be part of the largest team of horses Stewart and Tonkin have ever taken away from their home base.

Others headed north include: Ladies In Red, The Lost Storm, Very Pretty, Bay Of Biscay, The Highlight Reel, Cigano, Hesallmuscle, Susan In Her Name and, possibly, Mach Dan and Hurricane Harley.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Victoria