KEY POINTS:
Trainer Michelle Wallis has won one battle but lost another heading into one of harness racing's biggest days of the year.
Wallis and her husband Bernie Hackett have had a stellar 2007 and are hoping to round it off with victory in the Franklin Cup at Alexandra Park
on Monday.
But just getting the veteran iron horse Sly Flyin to the $70,000 race has been an achievement after he was forced out of last week's Summer Cup.
And while he now looks on track to take his place at Monday's huge Alexandra Park meeting, the news with stable trotting star Genius is not so good.
Genius, one of the most talented but hard to follow trotters in the country, came down with a virus last week that has ruled him out of the $75,000 National Trot.
"He got quite crook there last week but is a lot better now," said Hackett.
"But he will have to have a little break and get ready for the Auckland and Rowe Cup meetings instead."
While that is a blow the giant trotter may have struggled to beat One Over Kenny anyway on Monday but Sly Flyin's Franklin Cup prospects have grown enormously after only six horses accepted for the race yesterday.
Disappointingly the group two race has lost some key hopes, most notably Summer Cup winner Awesome Armbro, who is being saved for next Friday's Flying Mile at Cambridge, and Monkey King.
So if Sly Flyin can get back to his best he could still shock his younger rivals.
"He had a small problem last week, nothing serious," said Hackett. "He looks and feels far better now, but he did miss one hopple run.
"Still, he is a horse who keeps pretty fit so he can still do the job on Monday."
Before then the Wallis stable will head to Cambridge tonight for a smaller meeting sandwiched between the rich programmes dotted around the north in the next week.
But they could come away with the feature race if Stoney Creek is on his best behaviour.
The speedster likes Cambridge but cost himself a winning chance there last start when he ran off the markers when leading at the 500m mark, allowing a key rival to get inside him and force him wider on the home bend.
"It isn't the first time he has done it and he can be a funny horse," said Hackett.
"But I have been driving him in work a lot lately and I think he is getting better.
"He is steering very well at the moment and I wouldn't be surprised to see him go better this week."
So much of his chances depend on the start because if Stoney Creek makes one of his sizzling beginnings he could work his way to the front in a small field that doesn't look to contain too many mid-race challengers.
That would make him hard to catch in a race where Live Basically and stablemates Charmer Direct and Make It Real are other hopes depending on the tempo of the race.
Wallis and Hackett also line up two handy trotters in race eight, with both Angel Of Eden and On My Way rated each way hopes.
"There isn't a lot between them," said Hackett.
They could both struggle to catch high-class three-year-old Sovereignty, though, if he is on his best behaviour from the ace. He is shaping as a potential age group star.
