Muscle Mountain makes a statement with NZ Record in G3 feature

Friday night (Oct. 14) harness racing on premiere night at Addington Raceway hosted the 60th running of the time honoured Canterbury Park Trotting Cup.

The $30,000 Group Three feature for the Open Class trotters attracted the majority of the South Island contingent who are working towards the Dominion on Show Day at the same venue.

Among them was the reigning New Zealand Horse of the Year, Sundees Son (Majestic Son), who along with his pilot John Dunn were looking to make it a hattrick of successes in the race.

Along with up-and-coming superstar Muscle Mountain (Muscle Hill), the pair had a point to prove after both making mistakes in their most recent start which extinguished their chances of building some much needed confidence heading into the spring classics.

For the Greg and Nina Hope trained runner, the achilles heel had been the standing start manners, and although the pair were slow away, they were down and trotting which is all that was needed for him to be a massive threat to ending Sundees Son’s stranglehold on the feature race.

For Sundees Son, it was the back straight corner that he needed to navigate with that particular section of the track proving his achilles heel at times throughout his career, and unfortunately for his connections, it proved fatal to his chances yet again.

The speed was on throughout with last start winner, Smokin Bandar (Monkey Bones), and then Chief Of Staff (The Pres) dictating a solid tempo throughout the first lap before Ben Hope and Muscle Mountain let rip from the tail of the field to get up outside the leading pair with a lap to go.

Sundees Son was sitting patiently in the one out running line on the back of his stablemate, Mataderos (Dream Vacation), but went awkward in his gait in a carbon copy of last week’s effort, galloping free of interference and putting pay to his hopes of a three peat.

Hope took a look over his shoulder to see what the fuss was about before going handlebars down and giving Muscle Mountain his head, putting in a devastating 27.9 third quarter, putting a six-length gap on the chasing pack in the process.

Turning for home it was a procession, with Muscle Mountain being eased down to a four-length victory over a game Smokin Bandar and a further 3 and a half lengths back to Mataderos (Dream Vacation) in third. Sundees Son staged a mammoth recovery after his indiscretion, finishing into fifth place.

“I was rapt with last night’s run, it was great to see,” said Hope.

“I was reasonably confident he would step, I just held onto his mouth a little bit longer than I normally would just to make sure we trotted away, we obviously lost a length or two at the start, but he was away safely which was the main thing.

“I thought I would put him in the race at some point and was conscious of getting ahead of the favoured runners at some stage. Obviously, it was a New Zealand record for the distance, but I felt at that stage in the running they had just backed off enough that it was time to get going and get around them.

“I could faintly hear the commentators voice down the back and heard there must have been a bit of a skirmish somewhere, I didn’t know it was Sundees Son, but I could see Chief Of Staff getting a little bit tired and thought it would be the right time to give him his head and try and put a gap on them and it all worked out,” he said.

MUSCLE MOUNTAIN REPLAY

It was win number 20 for Muscle Mountain who from just 33 starts has now bankrolled $369,000 in the process. The race time of 3:12.9 shaved 1.7 seconds of the New Zealand Record for the 2600m journey previously held by Doctor Bones.

Muscle Mountain will now head back to Ashburton where he holds the 1700m National Record after his devastating victory in the Group Three Flying Mile 12 months ago.

“We are going to go to Ashburton for his next start and look to defend his Flying Mile honours, and then that will be his last race before the Dominion. Kaikoura is off the cards, but he might go to the Cup trials for a bit more standing start practice.

“We are obviously really thrilled with where he is at, but at the same time, I’m not getting ahead of myself. Sundees Son went phenomenal after his gallop and Smokin Bandar was a great run and a bit stiff I thought.

“Bolt For Brilliance was awesome the other night too, so while I am really happy with my fella, I’m not getting ahead of myself with what’s to come,” he said.

For complete Addington Raceway results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink