KEY POINTS:
Tim Butt thinks he can get his season back on track at Ashburton this weekend.
And then he will set his sights on Auckland.
Butt was riding the crest of a wave in November when Flashing Red won his second New Zealand Cup, with stablemate Tribute third, Mountbatten captured the Dominion Handicap and Foreal was rated the best mare in New Zealand.
Then the wheels fell off.
Flashing Red returned to his former trainer in Australia and nearly died, Tribute developed a quarter crack, Mountbatten ran into champion mare One Over Kenny and Foreal just lost interest.
That has left Butt with few feature race thrills outside of those provided by Report For Duty, who won the Franklin Cup and was third in last Sunday's Hunter Cup.
With the harness racing season about to get down to serious financial business again after summer's cruisey circuit racing, Butt knows it is time to pull out the big guns again.
"Things are looking up," says Butt, who trains in partnership with Phil Anderson.
"Report For Duty is racing well and he heading to the Inters while Tribute and Foreal will come up for the Auckland Cup."
Tribute has been swimming his way to fitness and will have a lead-up at Alexandra Park on February 29 before the March 7 Auckland Cup.
"He will be close to peak by then but ideally we would have liked to had more runs.
"And Foreal will come up too. She is not racing as good as she can but this will be her last trip away and then she will be retired to stud."
Mountbatten looks fantastic after a spell and will be aimed at the Rowe Cup, while Butt is adamant he has winning chances in the three feature races at Ashburton tomorrow.
He produces No No Yankee, who is unbeaten this season but faces a second line draw in the $30,000 Hambletonian.
He looks among the most talented members of a three-year-old crop which is developing into a quality bunch.
"He might sneak under the punters' guard because there are some smart horses in this field, like The Ultimate Galleon.
"But this guy does things right and I think he is a potential Derby winner."
Butt is rapt in his juvenile pacer, The Force, who meets hotshot opponents Sir Clive and Hone Heke in the Sapling Stakes.
"We beat Sir Clive at the Rangiora workouts two weeks ago and paced the last 800m in 56.2 seconds so I think he can win this week. "Sir Clive will be hard but I rate The Force as good as other top juveniles I have had like Tribute and Tuherbs."
Sir Clive - the $200,000 sales topper at Karaka last year - has also impressed at the workouts, while Hone Heke has the race form on the board and the draw to dictate to the debutantes.
The other age group feature on a huge day of racing is the Nevele R Fillies heat, in which northern star Lizzie Maguire takes on arch-rival Susie Maguire as well as Butt's filly Exotic Lover in a race with many chances.
"Those two will be very hard to beat but I can see Exotic Lover going an improved race this week.
"But like all the good races, here on Saturday, there is a lot of depth in the field."
