Racing: Terror To Love sets sights on Aussie riches

Terror To Love after winning Race 7, $250,000 2014 Trillian Trust Auckland Cup. Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand Cup hero Terror To Love is being given every possible chance to break his Australian duck.

That could come as soon as Saturday night.

The three-time Cup winner is surprisingly staying on in Australia after his brave fourth in last Saturday's Miracle Mile and will spend most of the summer racing in Victoria.

His first assignment is Saturday's A$100,000 Cranbourne Cup, which is set to be a Kiwi domination as Christen Me will also head there off the back of his Miracle Mile win.

Christen Me again holds the advantage, drawing the ace and will be a hot favourite but Terror To Love's draw of four is far better than what he is used to in Australia. After this week, Terror To Love will then head to the A$100,000 Ballarat Cup a week later to take on Beautide before returning home to New Zealand, having a brief let-up and being set for a longer Australian campaign beginning with the A$400,000 Victoria Cup on January 31.

"We have decided to give him every chance to win a major Australian race," says co-trainer Paul Court.

"The money is huge over there and a win there would help his future stallion career so it has now become the big aim."

Terror To Love has never won in eight starts in Australia but all have been at Menangle, where he had looked ill at ease on the old surface but more comfortable on the new surface last Saturday. "Ricky [May, driver] said with a bit more luck he could have been third and that was probably all he could hope for from that draw," said Court.

"But we are proud of how he went and he can't keep drawing bad.

"We think the Hunter Cup, being a standing-start two miler will be his best chance over there and the options are better than racing for much smaller money back here."

The prospect of Terror To Love and Christen Me taking their arch rivalry to the Australian Grand Circuit revive memories of transtasman pacing's glamour days when champions like Chokin, Master Musician and Blossom Lady could campaign together against Aussie heroes like Jack Morris and Golden Reign.

It also brings the top-end Australian pacing races into far sharper focus for New Zealand punters, with the Victoria Cup on January 31 now shaping as potentially the strongest race of the season anywhere in Australasia.

Not all harness eyes will be in Cranbourne this weekend though with Alexandra Park stepping up a notch as the southern invasion gets into full swing.

New Zealand Cup runner-up Franco Nelson takes on Gold Ace and Pembrook Benny in a small but select $30,000 Summer Cup on Friday night, while Hughie Green will look to bounce back from his NZ Cup Day dramas earlier on the night.

He meets Sires' Stakes runner-up Hug The Wind in the Northern Stakes.