KEY POINTS:
Bondy scorched into New Zealand Trotting Cup contention with a brilliant win in the group two $50,000 Kaikoura Cup yesterday.
Co-trainer David Butt took Bondy to the lead after about 300 metres of the 2400m race and he controlled the tempo from there.
Mark Purton moved the heavily-backed
favourite Classic Cullen up on his outside with a round to go, but when the acid went on at the top of the straight, he had to bow to Bondy, who sizzled home the last 800m in 55.3sec and the last 400m in 26.8sec.
His race time was 2min 59.8sec.
Fake Chance, who led early and then took the trail, battled gamely to grab second off Classic Cullen who was a courageous third, two lengths behind Bondy, while Keeprightondreaming ran home strongly for fourth ahead of Awesome Armbro, who had trouble getting clear from the back.
Fake Chance survived an inquiry into second place.
Bookmakers reacted quickly to Bondy's win, nearly halving his price for the New Zealand Trotting Cup at Addington on November 13 into $11.
It was Bondy's 10th win from just 20 starts and he has won eight from his past 11. The win took him well past $100,000 in prizemoney.
Earlier in the day, Bachelorette gave trainer Dave Kaa his greatest moment in harness racing in the $50,000 PGG Wrightsons Sales Series Aged Pace.
The Cambridge mare overcame a 20m handicap courtesy of a beautiful drive from Phil Butcher to down fellow northerners Kuai Diam and Victory Spirit.
It was a rare moment for Kaa, who only trains a handful of horses at Cambridge and some consolation for the heartache he suffered when the mare was beaten as a hot favourite in the $200,000 Harness Jewels in June.
But while she was fantastic in winning, the performance of the day came later when Stig continued his march towards greatness in the Lobster Inn Trot.
The one-time problem trotter gave some of the best in the country a 10m start and beat them after racing wide for the last lap and a half.
And he did so in the second fastest time ever for a 2400m standing start trot, remarkable considering he was a maiden just eight months ago.
Stig's performance was so dominant he is only needs to maintain his form to start a red hot favourite in the $150,000 Dominion Handicap next month.
Another horse heading to the New Zealand Cup carnival to catch the eye was Auckland Reactor who was impressive beating the older horses in the last leg of the $150,000 Pick6.