Ben Hope reunites with Midnight Dash tonight

Midnight Dash (Muscle Hill) gets his good luck charm back at Addington tonight.

But oddly that good luck charm, harness racing driver Ben Hope, is not only the driver who has won on him the most but beaten him plenty of times too.

Midnight Dash stands out in the feature trot, the $21,000 Norwood Farm Machinery Trot (7.09am), especially after the scratching of his last start conqueror One Over All.

Midnight Dash was driven into second at that last start by Ricky May who is his usual pilot because Hope, whose parents Greg and Nina train the eight-year-old, usually drives the stable’s superstar Muscle Mountain.

Midnight Dash has chased home Muscle Mountain in major trots in both islands but Ben also has a great record on the stable’s open class second stringer.

“He has won 13 races and I think I have driven him in 12 of those,” says Hope.

“I actually think Craig Thornley might be the only other driver to win on him because most times Ricky has driven him he has been in those really big races, which obviously aren’t easy to win.”

Midnight Dash has recovered well from a potentially career-threatening condition over a year ago and looks strong and consistent at the moment.

“This is a good race to be getting back on him,” says Hope.

“He is racing really well and it looks an ideal race for him, with Mystic Max probably the biggest danger.”

Hope says stable star Muscle Mountain could be back racing next week or go straight into the Fred Shaw NZ Trotting Champs on March 14.

The stable have two last-start winning mares clashing in Race 7 tonight with both Torvi and Mavis Jones impressive last time.

“Torvi hadn’t been having much luck but things have turned around the last two.

“She is actually in foal so his a happy mare but I think she might be slightly better on the grass than at Addington.

“Because of that I think Mavis Jones is our better hope of the two. She won really well last week.”

Tonight’s pacing feature appears to give Vessem (R6, No.3) the ideal chance to return to the winner’s circle.

The NZ Derby runner-up in December was luckless but eye-catching at Motukarara in his only start since the classic, and has a front line starting position in a small field tonight.

So if he behaves he should get tactical advantage over the other best performed pacers in the race, Franco Marek (10m) and One Change (20m).

One of the other highlights of the night promises to be Race 4 which sees plenty of promising intermediate grade pacers like Betterthancash, Bazooka and Midnight Miki clash over the mobile 1980m.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand