Big few days coming up for Purdon-Phelan team

Star harness racing trainer Scott Phelan is only concerned with what he can control.

So he isn’t losing any sleep over the constantly changing face of next Tuesday’s $1m IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup at Addington Raceway.

Phelan and senior training partner Barry Purdon train Merlin (Art Major), who just a few days ago could have been favourite for harness racing’s biggest event but will now start a drifting third favourite without having a thing wrong in between.

It has been a wild week for the Cup with the on-again, off-again campaign of Aussie champion Leap To Fame how on again after a healthy blood test on Tuesday following some virus concerns last weekend.

He will be on a plane from Sydney to Christchurch via Auckland on Sunday but in a remarkable turn of events his older half brother and defending New Zealand Cup champ Swayzee will be on that plane with him.

Swayzee wasn’t even nominated for the Cup but his trainer Jason Grimson changed his mind on Monday and paid a $28,000 late entry fee on Monday to get him into the race.

So there is a lot going on in this New Zealand Cup but Phelan says he and Purdon can only worry about Merlin and stablemate Mach Shard, with their other possible starter Sooner The Better having pulled out.

“It has been a big news week for the race and it is shaping up to be a huge contest, as it should be,” says Phelan.

“But it is important not to get distracted and we can only concentrate on what our horses are doing.

“We couldn’t be happier with Merlin and know he can win so we will keep working on him and the rest of our team and look forward to Tuesday.

Helping keep Phelan and plenty of other harness participants and punters distracted tonight will be the Alexandra Park meeting at which the stable have winning chances in both $35,000 Northern Metro Finals.

Always B Elite is their rep in the pacing final over 2200m and after his dominant heat win over key rival Hawkeye Pierce he is clearly the horse to beat.

“He keeps improving and has found the line really strongly his last few starts,” says Phelan.

“He has a bit of a wide draw but the way he won last week he has to be the one to beat and only being a three-year-old he has bit going for him heading forward.”

Always B Elite clearly outpointed Hawkeye Pierce last Friday and while they meet some handy rivals it will be a surprise if one of the two three-year-olds doesn’t win.

Not quite so clearcut will be the $35,000 Trot with several of the favourites galloping in last Friday’s heat while winner Dream Of You faces a 40m handicap after starting from 25m behind last week.

The Purdon/Phelan team have High Energy starting off a 30m handicap after being denied racing room late last week.

“She went really well considering she hadn’t race for a long time but it is a tricky race.”

Pantani was hot favourite last Friday but galloped twice, once when spooked by a rival galloping next to him but in the home straight for no reason.

“He will need to go better and we might start working him harder,” says Butcher, who is still learning about the three-year-old.

At his best Pantani would be the clear horse to beat but he will want to trot more smoothly than last week in the full field.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand