NZ Cup Day: Waterloo Sunset's kinky idea

Paul Nairn. File photo / Mark Mitchell

Paul Nairn has never been scared to try something different with his never-ending production line of top trotters.

But even by his standards what Waterloo Sunset will attempt at Addington tomorrow afternoon is radical.

Nairn plans to start Waterloo Sunset in the $20,000 intermediate trot at 1.11pm, then back him up an hour and 44 minutes later in the NZ Trotting Free-For-All, an $80,000 sprint. Nairn says he got the idea after having horses compete in the rich Great Southern Star in Victoria, where the elite trotters race in mile heats followed by a final two hours later.

Harness horses racing twice in a day is not a rarity and was very common decades ago, but to have a trotter attempt a 2600m standing start race and a group one 1950m mobile in two hours is unheard of in the modern era.

"I don't think you would want to try it the other way around," admits Nairn. "But having been to the Great Southern Star, I think the horses handle a sprint race after an earlier race fine and most of them seem to race better the second time around.

"I actually think racing a horse two hours apart suits them better than say six hours apart, when they have totally cooled down.

"So that is the plan at the moment. Of course we have the option to pull him out of the free-for-all if he races well below his best in the first race and we think he won't be able to give his best."

Thinking outside the square is nothing new to Nairn, who used to sleep in the stables at Alexandra Park and often rode champion trotter Stig around Cornwall Park without a saddle as a lead-up to winning races like the Rowe Cup.

The trotting free-for-all has been the centre of one of tomorrow's biggest betting plunges, with a $10,000 put on Monbet soon after he opened at $2.30 on Wednesday and the money continuing to come, pushing him into $1.80.