By MICHAEL GUERIN
MELBOURNE- Tomorrow is the day of reckoning for the wonder horses.
Two incidents, far from the hype-machine that is becoming these Interdominions, will determine whether the New Zealanders can break their 23-year losing streak in the series on Australia soil.
For Courage Under Fire and Christian Cullen tomorrow is D-day.
Courage Under Fire goes under the microscope with a full speed workout at Moonee Valley. And then Christian Cullen will be thoroughly inspected when trainer Brian O'Meara returns from New Zealand.
O'Meara will be praying that the cut Christian Cullen suffered when flattened three times in Saturday's Hunter Cup does not get infected.
Christian Cullen is believed to have struck himself during the second of his three scrambles during the race that broke punter's hearts but left harness fans shaking their heads at the champ's performance.
The Kiwi hero was flattened once by galloping Western Australian Saab after 100m, then galloped 50m later when trying to go too fast trying to catch his opponents, most of which had disappeared 50m in the distance.
To add insult to injury, Christian Cullen then ran into the back of Under Cover Lover when she checked off the sulky wheel of Holmes D G with 500m to run.
That left him with an impossible task but he produced the greatest performance of his career to run eighth, pacing his last mile in 1:56.7, his final 800 in 55.7 and last 400 in 27.7. All after catching the field, being five wide on the home turn and carrying an injury that left him with a blood stained lower leg after the race.
Christian Cullen inflicted a 5cm cut above his near-side hoof during the gallop and was feeling a little worse for wear yesterday.
"He was pretty sore on it this morning when I washed him down," said O'Meara yesterday.
"I think it will be all right but there is always the risk of infection or of not healing quickly. The cut itself is only superficial but you have to be so careful with any little thing in a series like this.
"He has had two hard races in seven days so he can have two days off while I head back to Christchurch but I will look over him when I get back on Tuesday.
"Hopefully he will be all right and I also have my fingers crossed that he didn't do any other damage - like to his tendons or something - during the race. I suppose we will know soon enough."
If Christian Cullen does heal perfectly then he will race next in the Victoria Cup on January 29 where Courage Under Fire should be waiting for him.
The latter eased fears over his heel abscess with a strong workout between races at Moonee Valley on Saturday night. But the fate of his Interdom campaign will be a lot clearer tomorrow.
"I will take him to Moonee Valley in the morning and give him a fast workout, at race pace, to make sure he is over it," said trainer Bruce Negus.
Courage Under Fire has been on antibiotics and Negus believes they have taken the inflammation out of the injury which flared up last Thursday.
"He was a lot better on Saturday night and worked perfectly soundly so I am confident he will make it through the series.
"But there is that area of concern now so that is why he needs a really hard run on Tuesday." Safely through that workout Courage Under Fire will start his Interdom series in a 2060m heat on Saturday night.
And as for the clash racing fans throughout Australasia have been waiting for?
"At this stage he will be in the Victoria Cup and after the way Christian Cullen went in the Hunter Cup it should be a great race," said Negus.
That is of course if nothing else goes wrong with either champion in the next 12 days. After the rollercoaster events of the last few days maybe the TAB should open a market on that.
Racing: Crunch time for Kiwi super twosome
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.