Harness race horse Don't Stop Dreaming had mixed results in 2024 in action. Photo / Supplied
Harness race horse Don't Stop Dreaming had mixed results in 2024 in action. Photo / Supplied
The best pacer trained at the Matamata thoroughbred track is ready to show something like his best form again.
But his champion trainer Mark Purdon still has some concerns as he prepares Don’t Stop Dreaming for a rematch with Auckland Cup winner Republican Party at Cambridge tonight.
Don’t Stop Dreaming is the most frustrating and intriguing pacer in the country, his best brilliant but his 2024 record that of a good not great horse.
He looked destined for that greatness as a late three-year-old, beating the older horses including his own stablemate Akuta in his last three-year-old start in December, 2023.
Yet he went on to win only three of his 17 starts last season even though at his best he pushed Australasia’s best pacers Leap To Fame (Hunter Cup) and Swayzee (NZ Cup) close in two of the code’s glamour races.
Swayzee (left, blue and yellow) winning last year's NZ Cup for Cam Hart at Addington. Photo / Supplied
Purdon trains Don’t Stop Dreaming with his son Nathan and while the five-year-old is normally based at their Canterbury stables, this week he has been at the Matamata thoroughbred track where Purdon is finding his way as a hobby trainer of gallopers, having achieved all anybody could ever want in harness racing.
So the horses work in their sulkies on the inside soft training track at Matamata then head to the Morrinsville harness training track for fast work when needed.
“Both he and Oscar Bonavena are here and they have settled in really well,” says Purdon.
“I think the change of environment has been good for Don’t Stop Dreaming and he is putting on weight.
“So I think he will go well this week but I am a little worried by his draw.”
It is not so much that Don’t Stop Dreaming has drawn barrier five in tonight’s mobile 2200m as at least that means he is drawn inside Auckland Cup winner Republican Party but more that the big freegoer Kango is drawn inside them both.
“Kango can be a horse who goes forward and likes to stay there so we will have to see how the start looks as to whether we try and cross him or come sit parked later.
“I think either way we can beat him as this horse feels like he is getting better every day.”
The best version of Don’t Stop Dreaming would be a hot favourite tonight but because of his form rollercoaster in the past year and Republican Party being in career-best form, the TAB bookies couldn’t really decide between the pair.
“Our little fella has really come to it the last month but we have the same draw issue Don’t Stop Dreaming has,” says Republican Party’s trainer Cran Dalgety.
“So, I reckon if we are going to beat them we are going to have to come from maybe near last to do it.”
Both Republican Party and Don’t Stop Dreaming are more or less on trial for a trip to the Hunter Cup at Melton on February 1 but the other big-name star heading to Cambridge tonight, Oscar Bonavena, looks even more certain to head to Melbourne.
Oscar Bonavena galloped behind the mobile before a huge recovery to finish third in the National Trot at Alexandra Park last week and Purdon has changed his bit to a softer one this week to avoid a repeat of that mishap.
“I am sure he will be fine and this is a race he really should be winning.”
If Oscar Bonavena justifies his $1.20 in tonight’s Group 3 Flying Stakes Trot, his next aim will be the Great Southern Star, which comprises a heat and final on the same night also at Melton on February 1.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
