By Michael Guerin
A private workout at Addington on Monday convinced trainer Cran Dalgety of two things heading into tonight’s East West Fencing Summer Cup.
The first is that Republican Party is ready to win even from the toughest draw and the second is Franco Sinatra will be better off without hopples in the same race.
Dalgety and wife Chrissie will try something which is very much a rarity in open class racing in New Zealand these days when the start Franco Sinatra without hopples in tonight’s feature.
Mach Shard is a major race winner who at times raced without hopples in recent years but it is not common yet Dalgety says he has tried it with lower grade horses on a few occasions.
“I just think he will be better without them on,” he says.
“He always paces around free-legged and I have been thinking about trying it for a while.
“We took them into Addington on Monday and he worked better than usual without hopples so that is how he will race on Friday.”
But while Franco Sinatra was good enough to win the Junior Free-For-All on New Zealand Cup day he will be big odds tonight as many of the best pacers in the South Island contest the 1980m mobile.
For horses like Republican Party and We Walk By Faith it could be a lead up to next Friday’s $100,000 Invercargill Cup while if the flights work out then Republican Party could then head to Alexandra Park to defend his Auckland Cup title.
With those two Group 1s ahead and drawn barrier 9 tonight you could easily envisage a situation where Republican Party is allowed to relax early and that wouldn’t be quite so relaxing for those punters taking his $1.55 price.
But Dalgety says that doesn’t have to be the case.
“The way he worked on Monday he is fit and ready to go,” he says.
“I know it is a lead-up race to bigger races the next two weeks but it is still $40,000 and we are still there to win.
“I don’t know what those horses inside him will do and we won’t give Carter instructions, he can go out and drive his own race.
“But I think he is ready to be put in the race if it pans out that way.”
There is great depth to the field though and if Republican Party has to sit parked then We Walk By Faith will take a power of beating while the real enigma of the race could be Chase A Dream, now trained by the Dunns.
Add in Alta Meteor and Mo’unga and it is a cracking little Group 3.
Earlier in the night the Dalgetys go into Race 1 understandably confident with Eun Sogno.
The two-year-old beat Sonofamistery last start and the latter bolted in last week so while he steps up in grade tonight Eun Sogno should have a class edge on his older rivals as he prepares to head to Invercargill next Friday for a $30,000 juvenile pace.