Trotting fans got their first glimpse of the older, wiser and faster Muscle Mountain (Muscle Hill) when he started his spring on a perfect note in the Ordeal Trotting Cup at Addington on Friday night (Sep. 9).
The Greg and Nina Hope trained harness racing five-year-old sped off the back of last yearās Dominion runner-up Mataderos to win the Group Three feature in the hands of Ben Hope.
![Muscle Mountain starts on a perfect note 1](https://harnesslink.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Muscle-Mountain-winning.jpg)
Though they clearly had an established Group One winning star on their hands, the feeling within the Hope camp is that after a full season of open class competition, Muscle Mountain has returned an even stronger force this spring.
āTo be honest, he felt like he has gone up a gear, to be honest,ā Ben Hope said.
āHe feels like he has taken that next step and hopefully he continues to show that this campaign.ā
Muscle Mountain was away quickly from the standing start tapes, in the first show that he is older and wiser than last year.
In stark contrast, the trotter missed away in his fresh-up run last year.
After jumping into an early trail, there were little concerns for favourite punters with such a classy trotter getting such a sweet run.
āHe did it on his ear, to be honest,ā Hope said.
āThe best part was that he stepped well and showed good manners, he was good to drive and relaxed in the running.ā
āHe got the run to win and he was too good on the day.ā
MUSCLE MOUNTAIN REPLAY
Muscle Mountain ended the winning run of Sundees Son in the Ordeal Trotting Cup.
After three consecutive wins in the feature race, the undisputed king of New Zealand trotting bypassed this yearās edition.
Muscle Mountain will now keep tuning up for his face-to-face meetings with the champ.
But how he moves forward isnāt quite certain.
The Hope team plan to start Muscle Mountain in the Canterbury Park Trotting Cup which is more than a month away.
Theyād love to start in a race before then, but need to find an event where Muscle Mountain isnāt off a huge handicap.
āThe Canterbury Park Trotting Cup is about five weeks away, so we wouldnāt mind having a race before then.ā
āBut in saying that, we donāt want to be off 50m or something like that.ā
āWe will see if we can find a race where he would be off a reasonable handicap and if we can find one it would be great.ā
Mataderos fought hard to take second behind Muscle Mountain and though he was defeated there was plenty of merit in his run.
The trotter looked to stride out more fluently than in his win at Addington last week.
Majestic Man tracked the first two throughout from three back on the pegs and he took third.
For complete race results, click here.
byĀ Jonny Turner, forĀ Harness Racing New Zealand