Star stable set to shine in Golden Gait

The best harness racing stable of the year is set to dominate the code’s newest glamour race night.

Tonight’s Alexandra Park meeting sees the first running of the Golden Gait finals, 10 races worth $100,000 each to reward those horses who have graced The Park often enough to be eligible.

While it is not the final Alexandra Park meeting of 2024, the Auckland Cup is still to come on New Year’s Eve, tonight’s meeting best symbolises the huge strides harness racing had made this year.

And no stable looms larger than the Barry Purdon/Scott Phelan partnership, who have been the undoubted stars of this new harness racing renaissance.

They have won plenty of major races including the $1m Race by Grins with Merlin which helped them earn over $3m in domestic stakes, remarkably a domestic record for Hall Of Fame trainer Barry Purdon in his storied career.

Purdon has had bigger seasons before if you count his Australian exploits but this year stands above all others at home, even dating back to when he and his late father Roy completely ruled the code.

The numbers are stunning: Purdon and Phelan have trained a winner every 3.7 starters including Group 1s with everything from veteran open class pacer Mach Shard to juvenile trotter Meant To Be.

Both race tonight and while the stable only has starters in four of the $100,000 races, their horses being too good for the lower grade races, they are favoured to win all four.

Their night starts in Race 3, the TAB Golden Gait 2YO Mobile Trot with Meant To Be (R3, No.8), our best two-year-old trotter but one still prone to letting his concentration drift.

“He seems to have come back from Christchurch really well so we expect him to race up to his peak,” says Phelan.

They may have the most talented horse in the next, the TAB 2YO Mobile Pace, in filly Youretheonethatiwant (R4, No.3) along with I Got Chills and Confederate but the filly can be tricky and awkward at times, something she overcomes with brilliant late surges.

Tonight she has barrier 3 under the preferential draw and if she shows gate speed she is the one to beat but her male rivals won’t make it easy on her, with the emerging Chase Me her greatest danger.

There should be no such concerns about Duchess Megxit using her draw (3) in the stacked three-year-old pace because while she has been most dazzling when driven with a sit she has reeled off a ballistic 53.8 second last 800m when leading over a sprint trip.

“She can do it either way and she is holding her form great, as well all saw last Friday,” says Phelan in reference to her Queen Of Hearts stunner.

If the race does get run upside down and suit the swoopers the stable are still the ones to beat with Better Knuckle Up and Jeremiah their next two best chances.

The race with the most moving parts for the stable is Race 7, the Aged R63-R99 Mobile Pace, in which they have Invisible, shock Taylor Mile/Messenger winner Mach Shard and most importantly Sooner The Bettor.

The latter is a super sprinter and finished second to Leap To Fame in the Miracle Mile in March so if he can cross to the lead early from barrier 6 he should win.

But there is plenty of gate speed on the front line and it is a race that quickly could become more complicated than it looks.

For complete race entries, click here

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand