Hunter Cup Carnival

[footyman]

Kicks off tomorrow night with the Group 1 Victoria Derby, Group 2 MV Cup and Group 2 Dullard Cup for the trotters.

I reckon HRV do a much better job with their carnivals than their galloping friends in terms of atmosphere and certainly make the racing an important part of the night as well so hopefully they get a decent crowd tomorrow night and then a couple of weeks time for the Hunter Cup.

Anyone got thoughts on the meeting? Can Lombo Pocket Watch bounce back from the defeat last week?

 

[sethlad]

Running the Hunter Cup in the afternoon is a great move.

As for the Derby,the gap is closing but LPW is a certain leader & I doubt anyone is game enough to put enough real pressure on him to get him beaten
Whether he's any value @$1.40 is personal opinion.

MV Cup looks a ripping race,winner guarenteed a Hunter Cup run.
Several well supported HC runners,Maximillion,Safari & Ultimate Mark.
Still,if this was discretionary handicap,Flashing Red would be giving them all a decent start.His last run was awful but if he's back,the $4 fixed odds looks ok.

Mares race is the race of the night Mi Coconut & Ball Gown are FFA'ers but theres a big wrap on the Qlder G L Girl.

seth

 

[who wood_collingwood]

Great win by Lombo Pocket Watch, what a superstar he is. I thought Singasongasixpence pulled it's way out of the race. Not sure why the hell Simone put Lisa on it. She should have driven it herself, the horse knows her better, she works it every day. With women drivers/trainers it is a little different because they "generally" have a different rapport with their horses.

Now he would never have beaten the winner in a million years last night, but he might have gone better with a familiar set of hands on board.

Just my opinion though.

 

[sethlad]

Big win by LPW,decisive front running effort.
Couple of terrific runs in the race,Fergiemack was massive,making good ground in a last half of 57.2 & Twelve Paces wasnt far behind him.These were the only two who made ground out wide,the rest of the 1st 6 all had the pegs.

MV Cup saw Smooth Crusa sit in the death & win easily,IMO his career best performance.Obviously his Inter campaign has toughened him up.
Maximillion & FR were both average,Safari missed the start badly & U Mark ran on ok late.

Good Looking Girl won the mares,sitting in the death from a desperately unlucky Mi Coconut,who got knocked over early & was 3 wide the last lap in a 56.2 last half.

seth

 

[footyman]

Super win from Lombo Pocket Watch. It's great to watch champions, whether human or animal, this ones pretty special. Another $96,000 into the bank for the win last night too has him edging to the closer to the million bucks in prizemoney.

Agree with the comments on Singasongasixpence - not sure what they were thinking there. Half the Carlton team seemed to be there watching their teammates horse last night too.

The win of Delft hasn't yet copped a mention, but it was good to see the InterDom winner of last year back in the winners circle - even if it was at the expense of the long odds on favourite!

In terms of crowd, there wasn't many there as I expected. Hopefully the Hunter Cup gets a few more there. Probably a victim of three days of Melbourne gallops racing and a couple of big weeks in sport. Rest of the night seemed a bit flat too after LPW win, reckon they ran the main race too early - it should've been at 10pm.

 

[HeLMie]

Whats the deal with LPW, is he potentially the greatest harness racer of all time or close to one of, or is he just winning the good races within the restricted classes???

 

[sethlad]

Fair question,potentially he's up there but he's beating his own age.
The rest are definitely catching up,he got beaten last week from 2nd line.

Usually with great 3yo's it depends on the depth with the older horses.
Courage Under Fire was unbeatable at 3,went on to be a very good horse but certainly far from dominant at Grand Circuit level.
Its not a vintage crop of open class horses at the minute so he should step to Grand Circuit racing comfortably.
Will he dominate at 4 or 5? IMO its doubtful because it's hard to imagine him improving much more.Its not as though he's only had a few starts.

seth

 

[SaintsSupporter]

I doubt he'll step straight out and dominate but I do think he'll gradually get used to GC racing and be a force once he's warm.

 

[footyman]

Regardless of the class, any racing animal who wins 21 from 23 is pretty special.

Hopefully keeps racing for a few more years yet, but the fellas on In The Gig last night were saying he might be retired after his 3 year old season.

 

[footyman]

Barrier draw for the Hunter Cup, to be run at 5.35pm on Sunday at Moonee Valley. Early thoughts?

1 REBA RAJAH (VIC)
T. MOULE
BRIAN GATH
$11

2 FOREAL (NZ)
T. BUTT
ANTHONY BUTT
$7.00

3 SMOOTH CRUSA (VIC)
L. JUSTICE
LANCE JUSTICE
$5.50

4 POPPYS BOY (VIC)
M. GOVERS
STUART GOVERS
$16

5 MI COCONUT (VIC)
J. NICHOLSON
JOHN NICHOLSON
$17

6 WINFORU (NZ)
G. SMALL
DAVID BUTCHER
$6.00

7 TOE TAPER (VIC)
T. MOULE
Driver TBC
$21

----------Second Row-------

8 THE WARP DRIVE (VIC)
P. CHIRCOP
JODI QUINLAN
(Emerg)

9 LOOKSLIKELIGHTNING (WA)
P. KEATING
MARK REED
$21

10 GOOD LOOKIN GIRL (QLD)
M. LICHTWARK
LUKE MCCARTHY
$16

11 TRIBUTE (NZ)
T. BUTT
TONY HERLIHY
$7.00

----------- 10 metres------
12 FLASHING RED (QLD)
G. WEBSTER
GEOFF WEBSTER
$7.50

13 ROBIN HOOD (VIC)
P. TONKIN
GAVIN LANG
$31

14 STING LIKA BEE (VIC)
B. TUDDENHAM
Driver TBC
$11

 

[sethlad]

This a traditionally a front markers race with only the remarkable Elsu defying the trend in the last decade.This is far from a vintage year although there are a couple of up & comers who could step up.

You had to be impressed with Smooth Crusa's win in the MV Cup,deathseated & spanked them.Has a good draw & is the rightful fave.
Tribute was massive in the Ballarat Cup,4 wide the last lap & has 10m on Flashing Red for finishing close to him.I'd say the 10m penalty has taken care of Sting Lika Bee's hopes.
Foreal is well drawn but a real risk at the stand which leaves Winforu as the other big hope.Has continued to improve,handles the stand & has a brilliant sprint if saved for one run.If he happened to find the front or leaders back,he's be the one to beat IMO.
I'll be cheering if FR can win,he deserves another GP 1 after an Inter,Vic Cup & Hunter Cup placing behind Elsu.

seth

 

[footyman]

This a traditionally a front markers race with only the remarkable Elsu defying the trend in the last decade.This is far from a vintage year although there are a couple of up & comers who could step up.

You had to be impressed with Smooth Crusa's win in the MV Cup,deathseated & spanked them.Has a good draw & is the rightful fave.
Tribute was massive in the Ballarat Cup,4 wide the last lap & has 10m on Flashing Red for finishing close to him.I'd say the 10m penalty has taken care of Sting Lika Bee's hopes.
Foreal is well drawn but a real risk at the stand which leaves Winforu as the other big hope.Has continued to improve,handles the stand & has a brilliant sprint if saved for one run.If he happened to find the front or leaders back,he's be the one to beat IMO.
I'll be cheering if FR can win,he deserves another GP 1 after an Inter,Vic Cup & Hunter Cup placing behind Elsu.

seth

Good preview.

The other big race is the Australian Trotters Championship, A Touch Of Flair came from last at the turn at Ballarat the other night in a race where the final quarter was about 29sec and didnt get beaten far at all, I was fairly impressed with that effort, main dangers?

 

[sethlad]

He's due to win a big one,very quiet drive last week.
Wont be fave for the 1st time in a very long time.
One Over Kenny is thrown in off the front & went terrific last week.
I'll be stunned if one of these 2 doesnt win.

seth

 

[banzai]

Good preview.

The other big race is the Australian Trotters Championship, A Touch Of Flair came from last at the turn at Ballarat the other night in a race where the final quarter was about 29sec and didnt get beaten far at all, I was fairly impressed with that effort, main dangers?

One Over Kenny should be mighty hard to beat off the front mark, If Uncle Petrika leads he will be more suited by the leader biased MV track and also Glenbogle.

In the Hunter Cup i think Winforu is the horse to beat.

Re LPW: Arent they going to retire him at the end of his 3yo campaign? That was certainly what i was hearing before christmas. Would be a shame to not know how good he really could be.

 

[who wood_collingwood]

I can't pick a winner from that field. Stand starts just throw everything to the wind.

So, I will go with what I know and pick the great man "Gavin Lang" and if Dasha drives Toe Tapper, him too.

My mates horse is in the last, number 7. Mister Douglas, ******** draw but lets hope he can settle a couple back somewhere and get a trail up. See you all out there. I'll be around the bar and with the trainer of MD.

 

[sethlad]

Its got a hope Mister Douglas,very quietly driven behind D & Furs.
Will need luck from 7 but the only genuine country FFA horse in the race.

seth

 

[who wood_collingwood]

Its got a hope Mister Douglas,very quietly driven behind D & Furs.
Will need luck from 7 but the only genuine country FFA horse in the race.

seth

I am not sure what Dasha was thinking at Mariborough to be honest, he was only just beaten, the only instruction was "don't be the first one out giving the trail" because D&F would have been able to beat him off his back. So it was an odd drive.

He is flying the horse and is being set for Charlton Cup. He won a stand trial on sunday by 25m. Not bad either, C17 MO. She has placed him very well to still be an MO.

 

[sethlad]

I saw that trial result,when's the Charlton Cup?
$9 fixed odds looks ok

seth

 

[footyman]

I saw that trial result,when's the Charlton Cup?
$9 fixed odds looks ok

seth

Sunday fortnight.

 

[who wood_collingwood]

26th or 25th Feb, not sure, it's the sunday. Twilight meeting

 

[who wood_collingwood]

So who's heading out to MV today off this forum???

 

[footyman]

So who's heading out to MV today off this forum???

yeah, i'll be out there.

hopefully they get the 10,000 crowd they are after.

 

[who wood_collingwood]

yeah it would be nice, and is going to be a good crowd. I have to stay on my best behaviour till after the last. Damn it! though, that wont happen!!!

Have a good day out there then.

 

[sethlad]

Yep,just heading off now,hope MD runs well for you.

seth

 

[punters123]

Yep,just heading off now,hope MD runs well for you.

seth

What a great days racing have never had a more enjoyable day. Great racing and driving. Congrats to all involved with Sting Like A Bee and what a day for C Alford. H.R.V top job putting a day like that on.