Trots Centre: Meade chases more Success with little bro to debut

There’s has been no success yet and any sparkle has been fleeting, but there will be plenty of eyes on every step taken by I Stand Alone, the little half-brother to a Great Southern Star champion, who makes his debut at Terang tonight.

I Stand Alone was the third foal bred from Diamond Insitu by John Meade, the first being the aforementioned Sparkling Success ($423,320) and the second being Diamond Wes ($22,725), and some five years on the Danny Bouchea gelding readies to take his first racing step in tonight’s Cobden Ab Trot.

“I reckon he’s a magnificent, lovely horse,” Meade said. “He has all the credentials to be a really good horse, but I’m not so confident I can get it out of him.”

Meade believes I Stand Alone injured a hip during his early years, “a deep-seated injury” that has seen him thus far fall short of their “high assumptions for this horse”.

“He doesn’t know he’s a brother of Sparkling Success,” said Meade, who had mixed feeling about I Stand Alone’s only trial this time in, when he was second of five on Saturday, beaten 50 metres by Jaeden.

“I wasn’t very happy with his trial, I thought he should have been a lot better against the pacers than he was, but it was a dreadful morning weather-wise and it was the fastest trial of the morning.”

So can he win? Meade has three in the race and, of his chances, has another on top.

“If I was a betting man, which I’m not, I’d say Wisp Of Smoke was the more likely,” Meade said. “I think she can win. She really trotted well up the back straight at Stawell.”

She’s not without her foibles and will need to be handled with kid gloves by Jason Lee, according to Meade, but he said “if he drives her well she’s got a big chance”.

And then there’s the three-year-old Double Helix, who has his fourth start tonight and while he’s yet to finish better than sixth and closer to the winner than 30 metres, he won his trial on Saturday amid encouraging signs.

“He was last of four at the top of the straight and got home and won,” Meade said. “He is a nice little horse, but lacks concentration and experience. If he can get away from the start and not get too excited, it wouldn’t be a shock if he could run a place.”

And finally we must check in on Sparkling Success, the prodigiously talented trotter who was ready to take on the world before injury struck. He's two starts back from a 17-month lay-off, improved greatly second up at Melton on March 21 and, most importantly, “he’s all right, his legs are fine”.

“After his second run, there was a thought that if we give him some time off and then bring him back he’ll go to another level,” Meade said. “If he goes to another level on the back of that second run they won’t go near him.

“He improved a lot, he just needed the extra bit of race work. He was 20 metres off Tornado Valley at the 350-metre mark, went three wide and only got beat five metres.”

Meade is considering placing him in the standing start scheduled for Terang on April 28, but long-term and post region-based racing there are bigger fish to fry.

TALKING TROTS ON SENTRACK:

Hosts Jason Bonnington and Blake Redden have another big show planned for today's SENTrack trots double-hour, which runs weekdays from 11am-1pm on 1377AM in Melbourne, 657AM in Perth and 1575AM in Wollongong.

Click here to listen live and for links to download the SEN app.

Highlights include:

From 11am:

Trainer Mick Gadsden on King Denny at Terang.

From 11.30am:

Ryan Duffy to talk about his Saturday night Tabcorp Park drives.

From noon:

Friday form panel with Cody Winnell.