KEY POINTS:
Grani fans should see the real deal at Avondale today. Charlie Faulkner's Great Northern Hurdles' dreams depend on it.
The Takanini trainer and co-owner of the 8-year-old says he's been too soft on his hobby horse in recent starts.
But with the Ellerslie feature now less than three weeks away it's time to take him out of cotton wool.
"He'll be so hard by the time of the Great Northern Hurdles [September 8] the only soft part of his body will be his teeth," promises Faulkner.
"Up until now I haven't been too worried about him. I've just been plodding along with him for two or three months.
"But now with the Great Northern just around the corner he's doing a ton of work."
Grani's Great Northern wake-up call also includes backing up in the open hurdle at Ellerslie this Saturday, something Faulkner would normally never do.
Faulkner said he hatched his new hard-nose approach after a recent meeting of the "Three Wise Men"; himself, track-rider Jim Doran and Allan Peard, foreman at Bruce Wallace's Takanini stables where Grani works.
The Northern, however, has been Faulkner's main aim with the versatile winter handicapper for the last two years.
He's had a beaten runner in the race before - Roskill King - but is adamant that Grani is in a different league.
"If I'm ever going to win the Northern, this is going to be the year," said Faulkner.
The gelding started off like a Northern horse to follow with a green, but impressive, maiden hurdle win on debut over fences at Avondale last September.
He made it a winning double a month later at Paeroa, and won his third hurdle race from his first four attempts on the same course last May.
But the wheels came off shortly after that when Grani fell as favourite in the Waikato Hurdles and again two jump races later at Te Awamutu.
Grani, who has been successfully mixing flat runs with hurdle assignments, leaped a lot better last time out when fourth after leading into the straight at Pukekohe on August 11.
But Faulkner says the horse was still grossly underdone for jumping, a factor he feels contributes to both his recent mishaps.
"I've just been too easy on him. He's had a week off here-and-there and when he's come back he hasn't seen the journey out right until the end.
"A lot of people say he won't see the [Great Northern] journey out either but I haven't been fair dinkum with the horse until now."
Faulkner knows he could have put a claimer on today to make the job in the Pat Jones Farewell 2800 easier.
But he has no qualms about northern pilot Nathan Hanley reuniting with Grani for the first time since their final-fence stumble at Te Awamutu in July.
"If the horse can't win on Wednesday [today] in spite of his big weight [67.5kg] I'll just be wasting my time," said Faulkner. "And he not only has to win, he has to win with style and probably do it again on Saturday. I'll be disappointed if he lets me down in all his next three starts."
