The decisions that could win the 2200m mobile may even start in the prelims, with just how ready and therefore fired up drivers such as Zachary Butcher with Old Town Road, Blair Orange with Copy That and Tim Williams with B D Joe are willing to get their charges.
Butcher has the best draw and Old Town Road the gate speed to use it, and if he decides he wants to hold the front he probably can. But that would mean burning early and opening himself up to mid-race pressure, the kryptonite of any speed horse.
Butcher’s other decision is to lead then trail, most likely Copy That, hoping the leader absorbs that mid-race pressure but safe in the knowledge he has the passing lane coming and if he can’t peg back Copy That he is likely to run second.
Orange will want the lead with Copy That, who has been nearly unbeatable in front and has the cruising speed to win if he gets there.
But if Orange feels early that either inside him or out he is going to lose the early war, when does he recalibrate and change to Plan B? Or is there only a Plan A with a bit of latitude about how long it takes to implement?
B D Joe’s connections want him fired off the gate and Williams will obey.
Whatever happens early the champion drivers on Self Assured, Akuta and Better Eclipse then have their decisions to make. They can’t all sit back and wait.
In a field where none of the open class stars have won more than two of their last five starts, those tiny calculations or pure instinct could decide the race.
Top Aussie in lap of gods
The most successful driver in Australian harness racing history returns to Cambridge tonight with two horses and one plan.
Chris Alford is nearing 8000 career wins, more than twice as much as New Zealand’s most successful driver Tony Herlihy.
Alford will partner Triple Eight in the $1 million The Race tonight.
But the reason he is crossing the Tasman is to partner Victorian trotter Aldebaran Zeus in tonight’s $45,000 Group 1 Mile, the start of a northern autumn campaign for the speedster.
He has picked the right race, with Muscle Mountain missing tonight, Bolt For Brilliance recovering from injury and Sundees Son and Temporale recently retired, so Aldebaran Zeus will start favourite even from barrier seven.
“He has very good gate speed so I will be going forward looking for the front,” Alford told the Herald.
“When he won the Māori Mile at Bendigo last season he came off the gate [opening 400m] in 26.8 seconds and when he won at Menangle two starts ago he went 27.3 seconds early and trotted a 1:52.6, so he is a top-class miler.”
Alford says forget Aldebaran Zeus’s defeat at Melton last start when beaten by a 40-1 outsider.
“He was too fat and needed the run and was blowing afterwards, but he will be ready for this week.”
Aldebaran Zeus is joined out wide by another natural speedster in Majestic Man so the trot should serve as a buzzy lead-in race to the $1 million The Race which follows.