Racing: Baileys Dream back on track

Baileys Dream (foreground) returns at Addington on Saturday from a long injury-enforced layoff. Photo / Oamaru Mail

It takes a special horse to put a $2.2 million-earning pacer in the shade.

But in the eyes and heart of trainer Brendon Hill that horse returns at Addington on Saturday afternoon.

Baileys Dream may never be as good as his richer, more glamorous stablemate Monkey King, but Hill is more excited about having Bailey back on track than he is about his stable star starting favourite in the same race.

The pair meet in the $75,000 Summer Cup, their first raceday steps in a campaign which will take in the Interdominions, which begin in Sydney in two weeks, and the Auckland Cup on March 12.

For Monkey King those races will be a lucrative extension of a wonderful season in which he has captured the New Zealand Cup/Free-For-All/Miracle Mile treble, broken the Australasian mile record and become our richest-ever pacer.

For Baileys Dream, Saturday's race is a triumph of a different sort.

The leggy, enigmatic pacer has not raced since finishing third to Auckland Reactor and Monkey King in the Flying Mile at Cambridge 13 months ago.

His career has been on hold since, troubled by the niggles a good horse gets when he tries to bend a giant frame around often unsuitably small tracks at ferocious speeds, often while hanging, as Baileys Dream frequently does.

The deeds and scandals of Auckland Reactor, Monkey King and Changeover in the past three years have left Baileys Dream the forgotten horse of New Zealand pacing.

But right from the start of his career and many times since he has been Hill, and former trainer Steven Reid's, special project.

This is, after all, the horse who emerged from a late injury cloud to set up Changeover's race record New Zealand Cup last season. A horse who has beaten the best often and himself more often, with his sometimes silly mobile gate antics and strange racing manners.

"It is great to have him back because everybody who works with him loves him," said Hill.

"Everybody loves Sam [Monkey King] too, but Bailey is just one of those horses and because he has had problems and missed so many races in then last year it is satisfying to get him back."

Satisfying is heart-warming but it doesn't pay the bills and Baileys Dream won't be getting on a plane to Sydney for the Interdoms unless he can show he is back to something like his best on Saturday.

Hill has no doubts.

"He has been trialling great," he enthuses.

"I took him to Ashburton last Wednesday and was really happy and then he had a workout at Rangiora on Saturday and I was happier again.

"He sat parked and won well, pacing his last 800m in 54.6 seconds and he beat Kiwi Ingenuity.

"I am not saying he will win on Saturday because he has a tough draw but I expect him to be in the first three."

More importantly, Baileys Dream's troublesome legs are showing no signs of soreness and Hill is confident he will weather the brutal five weeks ahead.

Former driver Todd Mitchell, who knows Baileys Dream so well, will return to take the reins on Saturday and in the Interdom Final should both stablemates make it that far.

As for Monkey King, he has had just one trial since finishing a brave fourth in the Victoria Cup in December but Hill says he is ready. "The draw will make things tricky for him because Kiwi Ingenuity should lead so she gets her chance to beat him."

Monkey King is the early favourite for the Interdominions, which begin two weeks tomorrow at Harold Park in Sydney. "He has come up very well after his short break and I couldn't be happier with him."

Meanwhile, the stable's third entry in the Trillian Trust Auckland Cup on March 12, Tennis Ball, will have a workout on Monday before heading north for lead-up racing.