As the 2018 TAB Inter Dominion draws nearer, much of the rhetoric has been around how even the pacing ranks are this season.
By contrast in the squaregaiters, however, Tornado Valley is a near even money favourite and Speeding Spur a clear and present second elect.
One man that will be hoping the punters have got it wrong is astute Menangle trainer Rickie Alchin.
He brings his star trotter Tough Monarch into the series off what appears on paper to be a disjointed preparation.
The son of Monarchy finished down the track in the Franco Trotters Cup at Menangle when favourite in late October and hasn’t been seen since.
His trainer/driver explained that his preparation had gone firmly to plan.
“We were always hoping to come into the series pretty fresh. He’s had a couple of trials since his last run and I’ve been pleased with both,” Alchin said.
“When you look at his last run I really wasn’t disappointed.
“At one stage there was probably 50 metres between the leader and my horse and I know he had a cart into the race but we still had to make that ground up three-wide on the track.
“He ran the fastest last half of the race so he couldn’t have done much more.”
It’s important to note too, given the form we’ve seen at his best in Victoria. Last season he claimed the Shepparton Trotters Cup in devastating fashion before being close-up in the Ballarat and Bendigo cups.
Alchin knows that one of Tough Monarch’s key assets heading into a series, which combines four runs in a fortnight, is his ability to improve through over the two weeks.
“He’s definitely going to be more suited when we get to the latter part of the series. He’s a really good stayer. Everyone knows the opinion I’ve had of the horse and that hasn’t changed at all,” he said.
“This week there is a bit of speed around us but he can get off the gate when I want to use him so we’ll just assess things early.
“He’s probably always going to be a horse that can make mistakes but I can’t worry about that, I just have to drive him like he’s going to be perfect.”
