By Michael Guerin
Dave McGowan must be wondering how he got it this wrong.
The Pukekohe trainer has been the big mover in northern harness racing this season, finding himself in the top 10 on the trainers premiership with one of New Zealand's best trotters in his care.
But when McGowan loads Special Force on a plane to Melbourne in the early hours of Saturday morning he will not be going along for the ride.
Which would not bother most trainers, except McGowan has never been out of the country.
Instead, stable foreman Todd MacFarlane will travel with Special Force.
"The more I think about that, the worse the deal I got looks," said McGowan yesterday.
"Still, we can't both go because we have work to do here and Todd is the driver."
While McGowan might not be a genius at organising himself a free trip to Melbourne with only one horse to work - the closest most horse trainers get to a holiday - that is about all he has got wrong this season.
He and MacFarlane have become a powerful force, with 25 horses in work and producing winners on some of harness racing's bigger days.
McGowan puts some of the success down to his wife, Clare, whom he married last month.
"Clare is a physio and she has been magic at getting the horses' bodies right," he said.
"Now Todd and I are going on the track knowing that our horses are ready and feel really good in themselves.
"It gives us a lot more confidence, in both our training and driving."
Now the McGowan stable faces the next step in its development - the big step overseas.
While there are good stakes for the best horses in New Zealand, for a harness stable to get the best for the owners of open class horses they have to be able to travel them, with the Moonee Valley summer carnival the mother of such events.
In Special Force's case that means taking on the very best of a vintage crop of
trotters as a mere 5-year-old.
Special Force and the Mark Purdon-trained Buster Hanover will arrive in Melbourne on Saturday morning.
The will take on Victorian stars Knight Pistol, National Interest and Noopy Kiosk in the Dullard Cup at Moonee Valley that night.
"I don't think it will worry him because he is a sensible horse and the flight to Melbourne is only three hours," McGowan said.
"And he really thrived on his trip to the South Island for the Cup carnival."
Special Force will have a major asset in the Dullard Cup, the new found mobile speed which helped him blow away his Flying Mile opponents at Cambridge on Christmas Eve.
"He really does fly the gate and he worked brilliantly today," McGowan said.
"He is so much more solid these days and you never get the feeling he is going to break anymore, which means you can really drive him into the corners.
"I did that at Pukekohe today and he trotted his last 400m in 27.5 seconds, which is flying around that last bend here," McGowan said yesterday.
After the Dullard, Special Force will go on and contest the Australasian Trotters Champs, for which he will be joined by a powerful Kiwi team.
Horse of the Year Merinai, the national mile record holder Sundon's Way, last season's Three-Year-Old of the Year Solar Fire and speedy southerner Sundowner Bay are all heading to Melbourne for the series.
Horse Racing: New force to continue special season
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