Racing: Trotters have riches galore

Recent Australian winner Stent will miss the Rowe Cup after being turned out for a spell. Photo / Stuart McCormick

With so much on offer a $100,000 Alexandra Park feature no longer holds pride of place.

The hard men of harness racing appear to have gone a bit soft.

However, take a closer look at the new face of trotting and you can see why the final two group ones of the open-class season have a last-man-standing feel to them.

For decades, trotters, as opposed to pacers, have been revered as ironhorses, capable of 100-plus start careers, often racing off huge handicaps.

Think Idle Scott's 219-start career, Lyell Creek's global heroics or Stig's refusal to stay retired.

But that era may be ending, judging by those missing from Friday night's $100,000 Anzac Cup at Alexandra Park.

There was a time a $100,000 trot would have trainers queuing to get a start but the huge increase in rich racing opportunities for trotters has seen the well start to run dry this late in the season.

Already in the past year we have seen I Can Doosit, Stig (finally), Escapee and The Fiery Ginga retired and yesterday New Zealand's most consistent open-class trotter Stent was sent to the paddock for a spell.

He looked out on his feet when battling into fifth in the New Zealand Trotting Champs at Addington two weeks ago and for good reason.

Stent had just returned from Australia, where he contested four group ones in 21 days, two of them on the same night in the Great Southern Star series.

That series didn't exist 14 months ago, while the A$200,000 Glenferrie Farm Challenge at Menangle on March 2 has also arrived out of nowhere.

So open-class trotters which used to peak for four or five group ones a season, could realistically race 20 times a season in the absolute elite grade.

And gone are the days when a 2:0 mile got them some serious stake money. Flying Isa, who contests the Anzac Cup on Friday, trotted 1:53.2 in a mere A$7000 race at Menangle last month.

The glut of big-money trotting races has been fuelled by Harness Racing Victoria's determination to promote the gait, which can be beamed into Europe, whereas racing authorities there have no interest in taking pacing races from Downunder as that gait doesn't exist in Europe.

The revolution is leaving trainers with plenty of choices.

Todd Mitchell will start 4-year-old Prime Power in the Anzac Cup on Friday but allow him to miss the Rowe Cup on May 9 to concentrate on his home-town Jewels defence on May 31.

Whereas Master Lavros and Royal Aspirations will be allowed to miss Friday's group one in preference for the Rowe Cup.

"I think our horse, regardless of what people think, is better suited to longer trips," said Royal Aspirations' driver Sam Smolenski.

"His blood was out last start but he has bounced back and will race at Alexandra Park the two following weeks and then the Jewels."

Australia's best trotter Keystone Del, who is owned in Waikato and trained by former Kiwi horsewoman Nicole Thorn, was originally going to be in Auckland for this carnival but Thorn changed her mind after he contested five group ones in 21 days last month.

While the new smorgasbord of group racing opportunities has trainers scratching their heads as to what to contest and what to miss, it comes with the obvious upside - Keystone Del, a one-time battler, won more than A$300,000 last month.

It also means some of trotting's elite are going to sleep awfully well after the Rowe Cup on May 9.

That is if they even make it that far.