KEY POINTS:
Tony Herlihy could be excused for fitting some rear-vision mirrors on his sulky before the $60,000 Flying Mile at Cambridge tonight.
Because while Herlihy partners one of the favourites in Sly Flyin, he might have one eye on the north's pacer of the moment, Napoleon.
Herlihy has partnered Napoleon to three stunning wins at Alexandra Park in the past month, culminating in the $70,000 Franklin Cup last Sunday.
On all three occasions Napoleon overcame handicaps to win at distances greater than those he is most lethal at, suggesting he will go close to overcoming the dreaded eight barrier tonight.
So while Herlihy is happy with the preparation of Sly Flyin heading into the richest race on the Waikato harness racing calendar tonight, he knows he is in for one hell of a race.
"My fella is well but Napoleon has been absolutely flying," said Herlihy.
"He has always been a lovely horse but the last month he has raced right up to his best and the way he is going he would be hard to beat in any race.
"We all know overcoming barrier eight in a mile at Cambridge is very hard, but the way he is racing I wouldn't say he couldn't do it."
While Napoleon has been the horse of the month in the north, Sly Flyin has been the region's best pacer this season.
He has staged a remarkable comeback from a career-threatening injury to win four races on end before his luckless sixth when pushed back to last in the New Zealand Cup.
Sly Flyin then came from near last to win the New Zealand Free-For-All, beating among others Napoleon, before racing like a tired horse in the Miracle Mile in November.
He is using tonight's race as a lucrative lead-up to a Victorian campaign which will include the Ballarat and Hunter Cups, so will be understandably short of his best.
"We took him down to Cambridge last Friday for a run between races and while I was happy with him he probably didn't go as fast overall as I would have liked," admits Herlihy.
"He paced 2400m in around 3:6, his last 800 in 57 and the 400 in 27 and did it well.
"But without having raced for six weeks he is definitely going to improve with the run."
What may aid Sly Flyin in his quest to down Napoleon is that he has barrier five, meaning he is likely to settle forward of his key rival.
"I think he can win but I am not as confident as I would be if he had a few runs under his belt."
That may just be Herlihy's natural conservatism, though, as Sly Flyin came from a 20m handicap to beat Baileys Dream on this track in October when he hadn't raced for 10 months.
He is the most highly proven open class pacer in New Zealand, so with any sort of luck he is still the horse to beat tonight.
One horse searching for a great deal more luck will be Mr Williams, who was knocked out of the Franklin Cup in an early skirmish.
He had easily taken the step to open class before that misfortune and from barrier two tonight has the perfect chance to try for an all-the-way win if he can stay in front of the other two favourites.
While his trainer-driver Brent Mangos was gutted being knocked out of Sunday's race, he had originally planned to bypass the Alexandra Park feature in favour of tonight's sprint, which he believed would suit Mr Williams better.
After effectively not having a race on Sunday, Mr Williams now gets the perfect chance to prove Mangos right.
