By Michael Guerin
Every year a couple of promising northern horses head to Addington for the Cup carnival and return like they have grown another leg.
The travelling and racing at the toughest carnival of the year seems to pressure cook them into mental maturity, from where they can go on to star over the summer months.
This year Special Force is one of those horses.
The Pukekohe trotter has always had the motor to trot with the best, evidenced by his Rowe Cup fourth after an early break last season.
But at this year's Cup carnival he was just another face in the open class trotting crowd.
That should change at Cambridge today. Special Force has returned from the south a serious open class force and is ready to start showing just how serious in the $25,000 DB Flying Mile.
"The trip down south really made him. You can just feel it in the way he has been working," said regular driver Todd MacFarlane.
Special Force showed a new string to his bow at the Alexandra Park workouts last Saturday when he roared out of the mobile gate to easily lead the best trotters in New Zealand, before lighting the track up with a 56.1 second last 800m.
"Before that he had handled the mobile starts well without being brilliant but now he is showing something out of the gate we may as well use it," said MacFarlane.
The pair should easily cross most of their rivals today even from barrier five at the tricky Cambridge mile start. If they do reach the front MacFarlane says a sub 1:58 mile is on.
His biggest danger is Buster Hanover, last year's winner of this race when he was in the same position as Special Force - a young gun on the way up after improving at the Cup carnival.
Buster Hanover is not a natural miler but is very fit and has been handling mobile starts better this season.
The other highlight today will be the clash of Great Northern Derby candidates Smart Holmes, Colonel Anvil and Stevies and with little between the trio the one who gets the best run should win.
Horse Racing: Trotter set to become a special force
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