Coal Face leads Purdon assault at The Park

Nathan Purdon has plenty of reasons to be excited as he heads to the first Alexandra Park harness racing meeting of the year tonight.

Because not only does the meeting boast the first juvenile race of the season but Purdon dominates it with four of the seven starters.

The $17,000 Breckon Farms Young Gun heat (8.05pm) starts a run toward the $100,000 final at Alexandra Park on March 20 and the series looks set to provide a great advertisement for Purdon’s new business now that he is training on his own account.

Things are looking good, we have 25 horses in work and 37 on the books,” he explained.

“And this is a stage of the season we really love, when the two-year-olds start stepping out.

“It has always been a big part of Dad’s career as he loved training the babies and I am the same.”

Purdon says Coal Face (R7, No.6) is the clear best chance of his quartet tonight.

“He is a very natural pacer who has been good at the workouts,” he explains.

“Andre (Poutama) who will do most of my main driving when Dad isn’t available will be on him this week and I am have been really happy with how he has been handling our horses.

“I think Dontgetmestarted (Sweet Lou) is the next best for this Friday as he is very professional and ready to go whereas I think the other two are more staying types of horses who will get better as the series goes on.”

Earlier in the night Purdon will be represented by the enigmatic Pantani off the front line in the first race.

Pantani once looked a budding open class trotter before his manners consistently let him down and they threatened to do so again in first outing for Purdon at Cambridge on December 24 before he recovered from a skip at the top of the straight to win.

“He is a tricky horse and has a few issues,” says Nathan.

“He can go out and trot faultlessly for five or six trackwork sessions in a row and then gallop in the next one for no reason.

“I think the key is getting his confidence back and being off the front this week if he can step and stay in front it could suit him.”

Pantani does step a long way up in grade though as he has proven group horses like One More Moment and Courmayeur just 10m behind him at the start.

Tonight’s meeting also hosts two Metro heats for both the pacers and the trotters leading into $35,000 finals back at The Park on January 30.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand