Chase A Dream has drawn one on the second line with the best Purdon can hope for in the pace being three deep on the markers with Don Hugo being attacked to create late gaps.
Both horses swooped to win their warm-up Flying Miles last Friday and in the brief history of the big-money slot races at Cambridge, Purdon is the only driver to come from back in the field at the bell to win one.
He came from last to win the first running of the Pace with Self Assured in 2022. The subsequent two editions were won by the leader Copy That in 2023 and Merlin coming out of the one-one last year.
The only running of the TAB Trot saw Just Believe sit parked last year to beat the leader, with the elite horses usually making Cambridge feel smaller than most 1000m tracks.
“I’d love to be able to use Oscar early from barrier three but I really don’t think it is the best thing to do with some of the issues he has had early in some mobile races this season,” said Purdon.
“He is at his most potent when driven for speed so I hope they go hard early and we get a sit handy to them.
“He can definitely win because he is really well.”
Chase A Dream benefited from a tougher training regime last week to improve dramatically but his task, and that of all the horses who get back in the Race by Betcha, is a daunting one.
Not only do they have to hope for a brutal pace to soften the leaders up but for gaps on a track that rarely sees the best fields break up over 2200m and a home straight that will disappear below their hooves quickly.
If Purdon is going to become the first driver to win two Cambridge slot races, Oscar Bonavena is by far his best chance of pulling it off.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
