By MICHAEL GUERIN
MELBOURNE - Victorian harness racing officials do not want champion Lyell Creek to start in their biggest trot of the year.
While racing officials throughout Australasia regularly court the freakish trotter, HRV bosses admit they won't want to see him in the $A100,000 Australasian Trotters Championships at Moonee Valley on February 24.
It is not because what is usually a great race will simply be a chance for Lyell Creek to show off, as he did with a ruthless display track record in Saturday night's $A100,000 Dullard Cup.
The reason HRV doesn't want Lyell Creek in the Trotters' Champs is because they want him in another race that night - taking on Australasia's best pacers in the $A400,000 Hunter Cup.
Lyell Creek's managing owner Graham Bruton suggested to HRV officials on Saturday that he didn't want Lyell Creek placed on a ridiculous handicap for the Trotters' Champs, the heats of which will be held at Moonee Valley this Saturday.
Bruton even suggested if the handicap was too long he would look at other options, like taking on Shakamaker, Yulestar and Atitagain in the Hunter Cup.
If Bruton wanted a reaction he got one. HRV officials were frothing at the mouth with excitement at the prospect.
Not only would Lyell Creek's clash with the pacing elite be a stunning promotional coup, it would also save the Trotters' Championships from becoming a financial disaster.
While Lyell Creek is the best known harness horse in the Southern Hemisphere he ruins the turnover on any race he contests.
Many bookmakers at Moonee Valley on Saturday night refused to take bets on the champ.
If he dodges the Trotters' Champs for the Hunter Cup the trot would develop into a more even and therefore more financially viable race.
And the Hunter Cup.
Well, that would become a complete freak show.
Trotting greats taking on the pacers are almost unheard of these days as the streamlining on breeding and very different racing style of the two gaits has increased the gap between them.
Seventy years ago it was possible for trotters to beat pacers in races like the New Zealand Cup.
But in the last two decades such clashes of the gaits have been restricted to the odd spectacular failure - like Scotch Tar's spirited bid to lead all the way in the 1980 New Zealand Free-For-All.
Lyell Creek may be closer to bridging the gap than any horse in the last 20 years and he would have the luxury of a front line starting position in the Hunter Cup, receiving up to 30m start from Shakamaker and Yulestar.
And this isn't completely new ground for Lyell Creek. Four months ago Sydney officials wanted to invite him to start in the Miracle Mile.
So how would New Zealand's greatest ever trotter fare against the big boys of pacing?
Quite simply, champion or no champion, he would get brained.
While his manners and stamina are unquestionable Lyell Creek simply wouldn't have the speed to match it with the pacing superstars when they hit the turbo button.
Here's a little example. Lyell Creek has a fastest 3200m time of just over 4:5. Yulestar has gone six seconds faster.
Of course the clash probably won't eventuate. Bruton and driver Anthony Butt will grumble then accept Lyell Creek's likely horrendous handicap in the Trotters' Championship and start him there instead. He will dominate the betting on the race and almost certainly outclass his opponents as he has all season.
It may well ruin betting on the race and it won't be as exciting as watching him take on the pacers in the Hunter Cup.
But Lyell Creek is a champion. And champions can do whatever they want, even if that means ruining the betting on the odd $100,000 race from time to time.
Racing: Harness officials welcome Lyell but not in top trot
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