Swayzee wasn’t even nominated for the Cup but his trainer Jason Grimson changed his mind on Monday and paid a $28,000 late entry fee on Monday to get him into the race.
The story gets stranger, with Swayzee to race in a Country Cup at Young in New South Wales tonight, a race he should cruise to victory in as he chases a special A$1 million bonus for winning five of those races. He has so far only won the first of the five.
So there is a lot going on in this New Zealand Cup but Phelan says he and Purdon can only worry about Merlin and stablemate Mach Shard, with their other possible starter Sooner The Better having pulled out.
“It has been a big news week for the race and it is shaping up to be a huge contest, as it should be,” says Phelan.
“But it is important not to get distracted and we can only concentrate on what our horses are doing.
“We couldn’t be happier with Merlin and know he can win so we will keep working on him and the rest of our team and look forward to Tuesday.”
Merlin drew wide on the front line for the Cup which seems ideal, with Leap To Fame alongside him, Don’t Stop Dreaming in barrier five and Swayzee off the second line, as he was when he won last season.
Helping keep Phelan and plenty of other harness participants and punters distracted tonight will be the Alexandra Park meeting at which the stable has winning chances in both $35,000 Metro Finals.
Always B Elite is their rep in the pacing final over 2200m and after his dominant heat win over key rival Hawkeye Pierce, he is clearly the horse to beat.
“He keeps improving and has found the line really strongly his last few starts,” says Phelan.
“He has a bit of a wide draw but the way he won last week he has to be the one to beat and only being a three-year-old he has bit going for him heading forward.”
Always B Elite clearly outpointed Hawkeye Pierce last Friday and while they meet some handy rivals it will be a surprise if one of the two three-year-olds doesn’t win.
Not quite so clear-cut will be the $35,000 Trot with several of the favourites galloping in last Friday’s heat while winner Dream Of You faces a 40m handicap after starting from 25m behind last week.
The Purdon/Phelan team have High Energy starting off a 30m handicap after being denied racing room late last week.
“She went really well considering she hadn’t raced for a long time but it is a tricky race.”
Pantani was hot favourite last Friday but galloped twice, once when spooked by a rival galloping next to him but in the home straight for no reason.
“He will need to go better and we might start working him harder,” says Butcher, who is still learning about the three-year-old.
At his best Pantani would be the clear horse to beat but he will want to trot more smoothly than last week in the full field.
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.
