Naughty Oscar expected to be on best behaviour on Anzac Day at Alexandra Park

Oscar Bonavena (blue) beats champion Just Believe at Addington last November. Photo / Race Images

Champion trainer Mark Purdon is turning the page on Oscar Bonavena making a fool of himself in the richest race of his life last start.

But he says a better beginning under a very different format will be crucial in the $100,000 Fisken And Sons Anzac Cup at Alexandra Park’s biggest meeting of the season on Friday night.

The meeting hosts five Group 1 races, with hotshot 3-year-olds Marketplace (barrier 1) and Beside Me (4) set to start long odds-on in the Woodlands Northern Derby and Pascoes Oaks respectively.

Meant To Be will also be a hot favourite even starting on the unruly in the Northern Trotting Derby, but the two open class Group 1s will provide punters with more complicated puzzles, especially the Anzac Cup.

It is a rare 2200m Group 1 handicap, and while the best trotters only face 10m handicaps in a big field how they step could decide the winner.

Oscar Bonavena finds himself in the unusual position of blowing the start from behind a mobile plenty of times in the last year, but actually being better behaved from a standing start.

His biggest gaffe came in the $600,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge last start when he exploded into a full gallop at the start, extinguishing his own chances, and he was lucky not to take out eventual winner Arcee Phoenix.

Purdon says the veteran trotter has been on his best behaviour in his work since and Purdon’s only option is to turn the page.

“He has been really good in his work, and we all know he has been a bit funny in mobile races, but I don’t think he will have any issues from a stand,” says Purdon.

“I’d love to see him step well because the horse on the front line will run along with it being only 2200m, and for the horses on the handicaps, the closer they can settle the better.

“So it could be a race where one of the big names that can step best might end up the best winning chance.”

With Bet N Win, Muscle Mountain, Not As Promised and Queen Elida also back on that 10m mark Oscar Bonavena will have plenty of high-class rivals in the same boat as him.

Blair Orange will partner Oscar Bonavena as Purdon is suspended and he also drives Chase A Dream in the $100,000 Dawson Harford Messenger for the elite pacers.

Chase A Dream’s season and maybe career looked to be in the balance after a couple of dreadful runs to start this season, but he bounced back with a huge win in the Flying Mile at Cambridge and a brave second to Leap To Fame in the $1 million Race by Betcha.

With no Merlin in Friday’s 2700m mobile Chase A Dream is the $2.60 favourite after drawing barrier 6, with Auckland Cup winner Republican Party the big winner in the draw, securing the ace.

“I am rapt with how he is working and I am really glad I let him miss the Taylor Mile [two weeks ago],” says Purdon.

“I think he will be hard to beat and I wouldn’t be scared to see Blair use him off the gate as he will be good in front.”

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.