History beckons in time honoured G1 $110,000 Fred Shaw Memorial

Easter Saturday sees a return of Premiere harness racing at Addington Raceway on Saturday afternoon with the Group One $110,000 Fred Shaw Memorial New Zealand Trotting Championships headlining a strong 11 race programme.

The Greg & Nina Hope trained superstar, Muscle Mountain (Muscle Hill), is looking to etch his name in the record books and capture the time honoured trotting feature for the third time in four years.

“I had a look through the record books the other day and I don’t think there has been a horse win the race three times before so if we were lucky enough to get the result tomorrow night, it would be a pretty cool achievement,” said his regular pilot, Ben Hope.

“He’s come through the resuming run great with no hiccups to speak of so we are pretty happy with how the last two weeks have been leading into Saturday afternoon,” he said.

Muscle Mountain was monstrous in his fresh up run and first official race since his arterial fibrillation in the Dominion on Show Day. The winner of 31 races from 49 starts accounted for a 30m handicap with ease to down an in form but far from 100% Oscar Bonavena to claim his second successive G3 Lamb & Hayward Trotters Classic.

It was a case of picking up where he left off, and if his rivals for Saturday night needed anything from the racing gods to be a chance of denying the superstar his trilogy of Fred Shaw’s, it was for the barrier draws to fall unfavourably with a tidy field of 11 guaranteeing their would be a second line.

Muscle Mountain has shown over his career to have gate speed on par with most Open Class pacers so even barrier nine wouldn’t have worried his connections. When the fields were released on Tuesday afternoon, the opposition’s worst nightmares were realised with the holder of five current New Zealand records drawing the pole, with his stablemate and G3 runner up, Midnight Dash (Muscle Hill) drawn alongside.

“I probably wasn’t too worried where I drew so long as it was on the front line, but obviously to get a good draw like that is great and we will be looking to use it.

“There are horses on the front row he could probably hand up too that would get him to the lane, but at the end of the day he is the best horse and I think he needs to be driven that way and I’ll be looking to take luck out of the equation,” he said.

Group One’s are generally earned and not given and there is enough quality in the feature trotting event to suggest that it wont be handed to Muscle Mountain on a platter. But given Greg Hope told Harnesslink a fortnight ago that the horse they call ‘Dobby’ was a little on the fat side for his resuming run and would improve off what he did, you would have to think he will be awfully hard to beat. The bookies agree listing him a $1.25 (and shortening) pre race favourite on fixed odds.

The Michael Purdon trained Mystic Max was a very good run a fortnight ago in behind for third and looks to be heading in the right direction, while the real intrigue lies with the dual Group One winning racemare, Sunny’s Sister (Majestic Son), who could create history of her own in joining her full brother on the winners list and become the first mare since One Over Kenny to do so.

The Phil Williamson trained Rowe Cup winner, Love N The Port (Love You) should take a lot of improvement out of his fresh up run last week when he was bombed late by another hopeful in the ever improving El Conqueror (Sebastian K).

However the way the stablemate Midnight Dash went last week, a Greg and Nina Hope Group One quinella isn’t out of the question, something the stable achieved back in 2016 when Monbet beat Quite A Moment 3/4 of a length in the Dominion.

“Last preparation not much went right for him, but this preparation he has been trotting good and putting his best foot forward,” said Hope when discussing the turn around for Midnight Dash.

“He feels good, so hopefully he goes another good race and a good campaign,” he said.

The Hope stable will line up three more runners on Friday night’s programme with a pair of pacing stable mates tackling the Group Three Fahey Fence Hire Autumn Free For All in the eighth on the card.

Mossdale Ben (A Rocknroll Dance) (11 – Ben Hope): “His runs haven’t been that bad. Sometimes I haven’t driven him that good and some times he’s had some bad luck in the running. He is going to need a few things to go his way from the draw but he is not out of it and certainly a first four player.”

Celtic Spirit (Sweet Lou) (2- Matty Williamson): “From the draw I would say Matty would use it and he will definitely go out of the gate, but it is a nice field and if he is in the top half a dozen we would be pretty happy.”

Jack Tar (Tintin In America) (11- Ben Hope) “It is a nice field. He has the rating rewards race next week and we are seeing this as a good opportunity to top him off for that. He’s probably going to be needing a bit of luck in that field I would have thought.

For complete Addington Raceway fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink