Grand Prix a ‘Dream’ chance for Balle to break Group One drought

North Island harness racing trainer Derek Balle knows a thing or two about winning Group One features at Addington Raceway having won the Dominion Handicap with the marvellous mare, Martina H (Sundon).

This Sunday at Addington Raceway, Balle gets a chance to further add to that folklore when his juvenile trotter, Dreams Pat (Father Patrick) lines up in the $110,000 Group One Ace Of Clubs for two-year-old trotting males.

Only a few race meetings in the Southern Hemisphere can boast a card that features eight Group Ones.

So with Harness Grand Prix day taking pole position in the eyes of every harness fan in the country, the stage is a big one for Balle to attempt to win his first Group One since 2005.

You could hear in his voice he was excited when talking about the task at hand of a horse who is a genuine winning chance.

“It’s always a buzz to travel with a nice horse whether it be to Christchurch or Aussie, it’s what you do it for and is always exciting competing on the big stage and for nice stakemoney,” said Balle when asked if he was excited about the opportunity before him.

Given Balle’s many accomplishments with countless squaregaiters, it’s little wonder he has access to incredible prospects like the homebred Dream’s Pat.

Balle’s two-year-old son of Father Patrick was bred by Waikato breeders, Jack and Jo Davies out of the blue blooded Paramount Dream (Pegasus Spur).

The winner of eight races is a full sister to Paramount Faith, the unraced dam of Muscle Mountain alongside a host of stakes performed siblings from the Paramount Star maternal line.

“We broke him in as a yearling and he has been here ever since,” said Balle.

“He has always been a lovely horse to do anything with. He was a little bit colty when we broke him in so the Davies took him back and gelded him at their place. But other than that, he is a dream to do anything with. He is a lovely horse,” he said.

Dream’s Pat’s Grand Prix chances took a blow when he caused a false start in last week’s Group Two New Zealand $64,000 Group Two NZ Sires Stakes 2YO Championship where he finished fourth in his first start for 64 days.

Despite the meritorious effort, the wee skip in the score up saw him copping his second mobile warning and ultimately finding himself drawn the unruly for this Sunday’s big finale for the male trotting babies.

EMPIRE CITY | 2YO SIRES STAKES CHAMPIONSHIP REPLAY

“They gave him a warning when he galloped away at Cambridge which the North Island stipes said would just sit on his record. To my mind they give them two warnings up North. We obviously missed away in the first score up last week which I blame David for because he didn’t have him up on the gate,” he said jokingly.

“The second time I yelled out to David to put him on the gate, he was fine. David felt like he was just a bit reluctant to go between the two horses, so I blame David for that more than the horse,” he laughed.

The fractious first attempt didn’t stop Dream’s Pat from running a slasher in a fresh state, with Butcher hopping off the horse and offering some advice of his own.

“David said you left him too short,” he laughed.

“Which shouldn’t have been a surprise, I said he would need the run and just to tuck him in. But he finished off the race pretty well and has trained on since and seems happy so that is great,” he said.

Juvenile trotting contests in the past have shown that the widest on the arm is not always the worst place to be.

What typically matters is good manners and the ability to run a quick last quarter.

Although Balle would have liked to have sent his big lump of a two-year-old with a little bit more fitness on his side, the small field and the fact he typically checks the aforementioned boxes, Balle is confident his charge is heading in the right direction come Sunday.

“He is probably close to 16 hands so having this sort of race at this time of year has really helped a horse like him. It’s strange because you think there would be a number of others in the same boat and kind of expected to see more in the field with a heap of juveniles up and trotting around.

“We gave him a break after his last start when he ran second behind Paramount Kiwi, he was a little off in behind and a bit muscle sore. We gave him eight days off and coming back up we had a few little niggles and ended up behind the eight ball really.

“We took him to a couple of trials here but they were against pacers and there wasn’t really an ideal heat for him. Ideally we would have liked to have a couple of starts with him before coming down to Christchurch, but it wasn’t to be. All told I was really happy with his first run at Addington last week,” he said.

Without the fillies to contend with, Dream’s Pat only finds one runner who finished in front of him last week in the progressive Tyron Eros (Majestic Son) running second after getting a cushy trip three back the markers.

The pair ran to the line virtually together, and if Balle’s horse has taken any sort of natural improvement from the run, David Butcher would have to fancy his chances of saluting.

A faultless display from Wilma’s Boy would make things awfully tough also with the enigmatic son of Tactical Landing appearing to be picking up a few of his mums habits late in the season.

The boutique nine horse field has plenty of quality across the front line, with plenty of southern interest with the likes of the Kaleb Bubltiz (first Group One training start) trained The Merc (Royal Aspirations) and Clark Barron’s promising juvenile Bring On The Muscle (Majestic Son). And as well-bred as Dream’s Pat is, you could argue the pedigree of the Mark Purdon trained Look To Da Stars (Andover Hall) is as good, if not better.

With that said, the sole North Island hope carries plenty of support as a loose $5.20 fifth fave in betting with only $2 separating five horses for favouritism.

In all four previous race day efforts, Dream’s Pat has been driven off the speed whether by design or having forced the hand of his pilot after an early error. Given what was at stake, I posed to Balle whether he would be happy to see his charge driven positively if necessary.

“If he was 100% fit I definitely wouldn’t be worried about doing some work, and I definitely won’t be giving a guy like David any instructions on what to do.

“It will be up to him based off how he feels and where the other favoured horses are in the running, but just with him being on the way back up, I would prefer to see him driven with a sit,” he said.

The 2YO Trotters Ace of Clubs will be the first Group One event of the day with Race 2 kicking off at 12:47pm on Sunday.

For complete Harness Grand Prix Day race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink