The stakes are high from the first major meeting of the year, with this weekend Group 2 cup a much-valued prize and an important pathway to the TAB Summer of Glory’s Grand Circuit racing.
Saturday’s Garrards Horse & Hound Bendigo Pacing Cup has drawn headliner Rock N Roll Doo amid a field hungry not only to bank full points in the first leg of the 2023 Trots Country Cups Championship but to build towards the February 4 Del-Re National A. G. Hunter Cup.
Trainer/driver Mick Stanley said the $75,000 feature would be an important fitness “springboard” for Rock N Roll Doo, who ran third behind fellow Bendigo Cup hopeful Major Meister and Mach Dan in the December 17 Cranbourne Cup, his only start since his NZ Trotting Cup tour.
“That’s always been our plan this time in,” Stanley told Paul Campbell’s Campbells Comments. “Cranbourne and Bendigo, the gaps are spaced really well that we could use them as two lead-up races into Ballarat and the Hunter Cup.
“That’s why I missed the (Vicbred Super Series), I wanted to get a really good block of staying races under his belt before the Hunter Cup.”
Stanley said he was “really happy” with the third at Cranbourne, when Rock N Roll Doo had to overcome a back row draw and do plenty of work in the chair before finishing nine metres adrift of Major Meister.
The fortunes have turned for Saturday night, with Rock N Roll Doo drawing gate one and Major Meister gate 11, which has seen the TAB price them at $2 and $3.30 respectively.
Rock N Roll Doo has shown only modest gate speed to date and is likely to come under early pressure from the likes of speed merchant Max Delight, who will be steered off the front row by Chris Alford. Alford shared on Twitter the draw was “not ideal” for the favourite, to which Stanley replied it was “perfect”.
Either way Stanley’s full of confidence of capturing a first Bendigo Pacing Cup, a trophy that would also be welcomed by the Douglas’ stable.
Julie and Glenn Douglas have Torrid Saint starting from gate nine off of a seventh placing in the Cranbourne Cup and second placing in the Inter Dominion pacing final.
“We gave him a little let up after Cranbourne, nothing major, just freshened him up for the tilt at Bendigo,” Glenn told Campbell’s Comments.
“You always want to win your home town cup, well I feel you do. We’ve won a number of cups across the state. Bendigo’s one that has alluded us and it would be terrific to get the prize.”
The Bendigo card also includes the Aldebaran Park Maori Mile, a $75,000 Group 1 that’s earned a reputation as Victoria’s fastest trotting sprint. It also serves as the first leg of the show-stopping Aurora Australis series.
The Bendigo Cup is also part of a double-header to kick off the Trots Country Cups Championship, with the Jim Phillips Memorial Cobram Pacing Cup to follow on Sunday.
The race has drawn a trio of New South Wales raiders, with Jason Grimson entering Lightning Dan and Fire Fox and Rickie Alchin starting Watts Up Sunshine. The card also features the Central Murray Credit Union Cobram Trotters Cup, a modest six-horse race that includes Dont Care and Powderkeg.
