KEY POINTS:
CHRISTCHURCH - Phil Anderson is hoping bad things really do come in threes.
Because if they do the 32-year-old could be in for the biggest day of his life at Addington today.
Anderson is the new training partner for champion Canterbury horseman Tim Butt and their stable has three horses in today's $500,000 New Zealand Trotting Cup.
One of them, Flashing Red, has been transformed from an Aussie battler to the Cup second favourite since joining the team in September.
Flashing Red has already beaten Cup favourite and defending champion Mainland Banner in national record time this season and has led the charge in an amazing spring for the stable.
With the stable's other Cup starters, The Flyin Doctor and Tribute, he has enabled the Butt-Anderson combination to win almost every major lead-up race in the South Island this season.
The partners lead the national trainers premiership and heading into Cup week things could not have been going better.
Until last week.
That was when the stable's trotting star, Inspire, who was bought just three months ago for around $250,000, got an injury which has ended her season.
"It is not too bad but she will be away from the track for six months," said Anderson.
Then on Friday the stable's promising young pacer Zircon dislocated pastern bone in a race.
"The vets didn't even know what it was. They had to look up the books, that is how rare an injury it is."
Two strokes of bad luck down, one to go, with the Cup just days away.
But Anderson didn't have to wait long for the last piece of the bad-luck puzzle as the stable's champion mare Foreal was checked at the start and lost all chance in the Newcastle Mile on Saturday night.
"It was a real shame to see her knocked out of the race but we are trying to be positive.
"If bad luck comes in threes we may have got ours out of the way."
Flashing Red generally doesn't need luck - he tends to make his own - and Anderson says that is the plan today.
"We know he is the toughest horse in the race and he is spot on, so we want to see him in front and if they are good enough to run him down so be it."
The only pacers in today's field with the ability and form to do so appear to be Mainland Banner and Sly Flyin, the north's best hope of victory.
Mainland Banner, who has raced only once this season, was the $2.75 favourite last night, with Flashing Red at $4.
Today's other highlight is the $175,000 Sires' Stakes Final, which looks certain to be dominated by northern pacers.
NZ Trotting Cup
* Addington Raceway
5pm, live TV3, Trackside
