Tubbs deflated by latest draws

Jess Tubbs hopes that Hunter Cup week finishes better than it started.

A couple of awful draws have made life much harder for Tubbs’ stable stars, Just Believe (Orlando Vici) and Better Eclipse (Betterthancheddar), in their respective feature harness racing events.

Tubbs conceded Just Believe’s gate nine – against Queen Elida (four) and Arcee Phoenix (three) – potentially made the race his biggest challenge since returning from Sweden.

“It won’t be easy from there, but he did get beaten in the heat last year and won the final, so we’re not getting too concerned about it,” she said.

“It will also be interesting to see how hard some of these want to go in the heats, knowing the final is a couple of hours later, and that’s the big one.”

Just Believe has been invincible since returning from Sweden with seven successive wins, including a clean sweep of the Brisbane Inter Dominion series last month.

The eight-year-old will start from outside the back row, following out longshot Hot To Trot.

It is clearly the stronger of the two Great Southern Star heats and also includes high-class performers Im Ready Jet (gate five) and Ollivici (six), along with the untapped Keayang Chucky (seven).

Better Eclipse looks to have a huge task from outside the front (gate seven) in the Hunter Cup.

It’s made worse by big guns Leap To Fame (six) and Catch A Wave (two) drawing better than him.

“We’re in the hands of others now … seven is not the number we wanted to see,” Tubbs said.

“I guess it removes the decisions from it. We just have to go back and hope the race is run upside down.”

“At least we’ve got him in career-best form, but he’ll need a lot to go right from there.”

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Australia