Son of Captaintreacherous speeds to Group Two victory

Hot And Treacherous (NZ) (Captaintreacherous) added more stakes race success to his impressive harness racing resume with a powerful victory in the $50,000 Group Two McMillan Feeds Flying Mile (1609m) at Cambridge on Thursday night.

The four-year-old produced a scintillating 26.7sec opening 400 metres to set up a big front-running victory for trainers Brian and Gareth Hughes and driver Maurice McKendry.

HOT AND TREACHEROUS REPLAY

Hot And Treacherous was a $60,000 purchase by Brian Hughes from breeder-vendors Breckon Farms at the 2019 National Standardbred Yearling Sale in Auckland.

With a scratching inside him, Hot And Treacherous was able to start from Barrier 1 in the Cambridge feature.

From there, the pacer’s rivals never got a look in as he kept up a very strong pace before fighting hard to win.

“Drawn one, I thought he has got to be in it, he would be a pretty good show,” Maurice McKendry said.

“It is a pretty good run to go 1.52 in front.”

McKendry admitted he steadied the speed in the middle stages, though it was not for long.

Hot And Treacherous clocked a brilliant winning time of 1.52.2, the second-fastest in the Cambridge Flying Mile history books, which begin in 1966. Only champion mare Adore Me(NZ) (Bettor’s Delight) has produced a faster win in the race.

“We got the one hole and we were good enough to hold up,” McKendry said.

“We got a wee bit of an easy fraction and I thought we were a show of winning and we did.”

Hot And Treacherous was a star performer as a two and three-year-old, running fourth in the Group One New Zealand Derby (2600m) behind fellow NZB Standardbred graduate Krug (NZ) before running third behind another graduate in B D Joe (NZ) (Roll With Joe) at Group One level at the Harness Jewels.

The pacer has taken the step into open class racing as a four-year-old in grand style, culminating in his first stakes race success in the $26,500 Group Three Thames Goldfields Summer Cup (2200m) at Alexandra Park in December.

Since then, Hot And Treacherous has been brilliantly consistent, running third in the $44,000 Group Two Auckland Co-Op Taxi City Of Auckland Free-For-All (2200m) and second in the $96,000 Group One Dawson Harford Limited Taylor Mile (1609m).

From NZB Standardbred