Racing: Cruz Bromac best hope in Interdoms

Cruz Bromac (6) at Addington yesterday. Photo / Race Images

Cruz Bromac emerged as New Zealand's best hope of Inter Dominion glory when he blew his NZ Free-For-All rivals off the track at Addington last night.

The much-travelled pacer used his blistering gate speed to control the $200,000 sprint and give co-trainer and driver Natalie Rasmussen the premier pacing double of Cup week after she had won the New Zealand Cup with Thefixer on Tuesday.

But unlike Thefixer, who will stay in New Zealand, Cruz Bromac will head back to Australia as our main hope in the Inter Dominion Pacing series.

That starts at Melton in Victoria on December 1, with three rounds of heats before the A$500,000 final on December 15.

Cruz Bromac, who was bred in New Zealand before racing extensively in Australia and then coming home to be trained by the All Stars, now looks a potent Interdom challenger.

Not only does he has that wealth of hard Australian racing experience but his gate speed could be a huge factor in the heats and finals.

And with so many high-class pacers falling by the wayside for a variety of reasons in the last 12 months, he has picked the right year to tackle the series.

"It makes sense to go with him and we think he has a real chance," said Rasmussen, who co-trains the seven-year-old with Mark Purdon.

"His gate speed will be a real asset and he has got better almost every start he has had with us."

With the training partnership choosing not to take many of their stars to the series Cruz Bromac is now the horse that gives them a shot at an historic treble as they have won the last two Inter Dominions with two other stars, Smolda and Lazarus.

Cruz Bromac may not be in their class but this year's series may not be as deep as the one Lazarus had to conquer last year.

As good as the winner was the performance of Turn It Up to run second at only his seventh start is one of the more remarkable for a pacer of such limited experience in recent harness racing history.

But while he is nominated for the Interdoms too he is very unlikely to go.

Jack's Legend capitalised on a trailing run to finish third - his second straight placing in the race - while Pat's Delight worked home nicely for fourth ahead of Spankem.

But the abject failure of the race was NZ Cup heroic second Tiger Tara, who sat parked but was beaten a long way from home, finishing 10 lengths behind the second last horse clearly below his best.

That calls into question his Inter Dominion assault and his favouritism for the series after a brutally hard week in Christchurch.

• Dual Group Two winner Ocean Emperor is vying to make it back-to-back wins in the Gr.2 Gartshore Tauranga Stakes (1600m) today.

The Gary Hennessy-trained entire is back in winning form after victory over 1400m at Awapuni last-start and his connections are quietly confident.