By Michael Guerin
Normally the name of a race has very little to do with the result but that may not be the case in the Roy Purdon Memorial at Alexandra Park tonight.
The $45,000 feature is the final lead-up to next Friday’s Auckland Cup and lead-up races to Group 1s can be dangerous for punters as the driving tactics are often conservative as nobody wants to give their horse a gutbuster a week out from the more lucrative target.
That could have been especially prevalent tonight as the pacing highlight of the evening is a 2200m handicap and the best two horses, Self Assured and Akuta, are off 20m handicaps with the leaders likely to run hard off the front in an attempt to keep them out of the race.
It would be easy for the favourites to sit back and run home hard, keeping their powder dry for next Friday.
But this is no normal lead-up race. It is named in honour of Roy Purdon, one of the legends of New Zealand racing who died early last year.
And those two favourites Self Assured and Akuta are trained by Purdon’s son Mark and grandson Nathan. And you know they would love to win the race named after the patriarch of the famous harness racing family.
“We won it last year and we would love to win it again because we are very proud to have the race named after Dad,” said Purdon, who calls the race, “Dad’s race.”
While both Self Assured and Akuta have won Group 1s this autumn Purdon says Self Assured is the stable’s best chance tonight.
“He seems really well, in a good place physically and mentally and he is ready to be driven like that is Natalie decides to,” he explains.
“Whereas Akuta didn’t start in the Messenger so I think he will be at 90 per cent this week and improve for next week.”
As wonderful a pacer as Self Assured is he is no good thing tonight because the front line horses look certain to run hard to try and keep him at bay, Kango could join in that creating tempo from the 10m mark while Old Town Road, also off the 10m, should settle in front of Self Assured and sprint hard.
So to win Self Assured is going to need to be clearly the best horse in the race as well as enjoy an ounce of luck.
While Purdon’s couldn’t be happier with Self Assured going into “Dad’s race” he has a double whammy of potentially bad news on Thursday morning.
Both unbeaten pacing filly Millwood Nike and star 3-y-o trotter High Energy pulled up walking short after track work and are in doubt for their feature races tonight.
“It isn’t anything too serious but they are a touch sore in the hoof area and we will get them checked today,” says Purdon.
“I would say we won’t make a call on Millwood Nike until tomorrow morning (Friday) but High Energy might be less likely to start,” said Purdon.
If Millwood Nike does come out of her race Purdon says Fortify is the better of the stable’s two remaining hopes.
Oscar Bonavena provides the stable with a good chance in the Anzac Cup providing he can get close enough to use his sprint, with his 20m handicap made more challenging by the big field. Earlier High Step may struggle to catch the very mature The Moonstone in the first Young Guns Trotting Final.
