Racing: Smolda takes feature but trainers steal the limelight

No.3 Smolda, driven by Mark Purdon. File photo / NZME.

On any normal day Smolda's sizzling victory in the Flying Stakes at Ashburton would have made him the star of the show.

But while his near-record performance was good enough to earn him favouritism for the $750,000 New Zealand Trotting Cup in two weeks, he had to play second fiddle to his trainers.

Because Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen produced one of the dominant days of their storied careers by winning the first six races they had starters in, only standing start inexperience robbing them of a clean sweep of seven races.

Their perfect percentage up until Have Faith In Me galloped at the start of the last race meant they at one stage had trained the winners of the last 10 races they had representatives in over the weekend, a mind-boggling strike rate to send shivers down the spines of their rivals heading into NZ Cup week.

The All Stars stable actually trained seven winners on New Zealand Cup day last November, including the Cup and the Sires' Stakes Final on what must be their single greatest achievement but that was from 12 races.

At least on that day they actually failed to win two of the races they had runners in - finishing second in both - yesterday they were even more potent, admittedly against opposition minus Cup Day depth.

The returning youngsters like Arden's Choice and Prince Fearless always had too much class for their rivals but Smolda had to pace serious time to win the Flying Stakes, just 0.2 of a second outside Terror To Love's national 2400m mark.

Beautifully driven, he spent much of the race in the one-one as Tiger Tara went to war first with Mossdale Conner and then with Ohoka Punter, leaving Smolda to cruise past that trio in the straight, his 53 second personal last 800m one of the fastest ever paced in this part of the world.

It confirmed Smolda is peaking at the right time for the Cup in a fortnight, for which he is the $3 favourite and may go into it without another public outing.

But there was enough to like about Ohoka Punter, Tiger Tara and the late charging Sky Major in fifth to suggest they can push Smolda at Addington with luck in the running.

Add in Messini and Arden Rooney as well as the curious case of Christen Me and the Cup has some serious depth for punters to swim around in.

While Tony Herlihy had to settle for second with Ohoka Punter he went one better in yesterday's Flying Mile for the trotters when One Over Da Moon used his gate speed to lead and outsprint hot favourite Stent.

The tiny trotter, who recently become a father as he shares limited stud work with his racing career, has developed into a serious group one player for Herlihy and the gate speed he showed yesterday should ensure him group one glory at some stage this season.