Start crucial for Beach Ball tonight

Ricky May has no doubts about the harness racing horsepower he will be sitting behind in the Lamb And Hayward Canterbury Classic at Addington tonight.

But for all the talent of last season’s NZ Cup placegetter Beach Ball (Somebeachsomewhere), May knows tonight’s golden ticket race to this year’s IRT Trotting New Zealand could come down to manners.

The Classic brings together many of those ranked between five and 20 for the NZ Cup and might be the last realistic chance for some to get into the race, with the first three home tonight guaranteed a Cup berth.

Beach Ball, courtesy of a wonderful Cup week last season, finds himself almost certainly in the Cup again, having been ranked ninth in the first rankings and with a few of those immediately behind, particularly the Australians, unlikely to chase a start.

Yet for all his proven open class form he was rated a $15 chance by the TAB when the market opened and May says how quickly Beach Ball can begin may determine how right those odds are.

“I have driven him at three workouts this time in and last week he felt really good,” says May.

“I know Kevin [Chapman, trainer] has had a few little issues along the way but we all know he finished third in the Cup last year so he can obviously beat most of these this week with the right run.

“But the start will be crucial. As we have seen in most of the races this spring they have been won by the horses who settle handy.

“There are some fast beginners on that front line so where we settle will determine how much work we have to do and maybe his overall chances.”

Few in tonight’s race can match Beach Ball’s best, with plenty in tonight’s field still earning their open class stripes.

So that takes us back to the start and those standing start manners.

If the last two winners of this race, B D Joe (2022) or Republican Party (2023) could get handy then they might have the automatic respect to work their way to the front and possibly dominate.

But in a race with plenty of hard-running stayers and those NZ Cup spots up for grabs it wouldn’t surprise to see one or two drivers throw caution to the wind and the recent on-speed bias of the lead-up races be reversed.

The IRT New Zealand Cup winner may ultimately not be in tonight’s race but it has the potential to both a great betting race and incredibly good fun.

Earlier in the night there may be less winning chances in the $50,000 Aldebaran Eagle Trot for the juveniles but fillies Habibti Pat and Ya Right Darl both have some X-factor and the race should go some way to working out the southern juvenile trotter’s pecking order for now.

Big gun three-year-olds Vessem (9), We Walk By Faith (8), Hadron Collider (7) and Betterthancash (6) face wide draws in the Can Print Lazarus Stakes as the three-year-old season starts to warm up in a race with plenty of potential for pressure.

For complete race entries, click here

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand