Ideal Cup hope for Stewart

Harness racing’s all-conquering Emma Stewart stable looks set to continue its stranglehold on the country cups season with Hes Ideal, who will be short odds to build on his picket fence form line in the United Petroleum Yarra Valley Pacing Cup on Thursday (Nov. 3).

The son of American Ideal is unbeaten in all four starts this time in and has drawn to find the lead during the early stages of the race from his mid front row alley.

The stable has swept this season’s most recent cups, taking out the Maryborough (Act Now), Geelong (Mach Dan) and Swan Hill crowns (Our Millionaire) in the past three weeks.

The one constant in each has been the Julie Douglas-trained Torrid Saint, whose unplaced effort at Geelong was punctuated by placings at Maryborough and Swan Hill.

Jack Laugher, who has been in the sulky on all three occasions, admits the magnitude of Thursday’s task, when he’ll need to turn the tables from the second row, may be a bridge too far.

“They were dawdling in the Geelong Cup and if we wanted to win then I had to come around them and try and get the front but it wasn’t there,” Laugher said.

“If the speed is half genuine then we would be able to track into it but more often than not nobody wants to take them on, so if you sit back then it’s just too hard to get into the race.”

He said Torrid Saint was luckless when he finished third behind Our Millionaire last week, having to advance from four horses back along the pegs.

“I didn’t think he was too bad at Swan Hill after not having much luck and he hit the line all right, so he is holding his form,” he said.

Laugher believes the Yarra Valley Cup could create more than its share of interest, noting “it looks a good race with a few different form lines coming together”.

The card also features the De Bortoli Yarra Valley Trotters Cup and there is an argument to suggest One Over All could have been, with a little luck, shooting for a hat-trick of country crowns.

Two starts ago the Jess Tubs trained four-year-old was slowly away from the tapes before being held up until the home turn and finishing an unlucky second behind Parisian Artiste in the Maryborough Trotters Cup.

The royally-bred trotter made amends when he established a track record after sitting parked in the Haras Des Trotteurs McNamara Memorial Trotters Cup at Geelong a week later.

The cups are races seven (3.34pm) and eight (4.14pm) on the 12-race program. All races can be enjoyed live and free on TrotsVision.com.au, with extended coverage for the quaddie legs (races five to eight).

For complete race fields, click here.

by John Dunne, for HRV