Big handicaps make it tricky for big guns at Addington tonight

By Michael Guerin

Regan Todd doesn’t have to think back too far to find a reason Mo’unga can’t win his return to racing at Addington tonight.

But rival trainer Steve Telfer says for Alta Meteor, who starts off the same back mark in tonight’s NZI National Insurance Handicap, the start will be the winning or losing of the race.

The pair go into the first open class-type race of the second half of the season in similar positions off a 30m back mark but with vastly different lead-ups.

Mo’unga was a constant improver last campaign who looked a little luckless not to pick up a major prize, most notably the Messenger where he stormed home for second to Republican Party.

“He has developed into a really good horse but the 30m this week makes it so hard,” says Todd.

“I had Betterthancash win the Country Cups Final off 10m and then two weeks later [June 13] he started off a 25m handicap in a normal 2600m race and never got near them.

“He paced 3:15 that night and a half [800m] in 55 seconds and still wasn’t a factor so it shows how hard it can be off these big back marks, even more so fresh up.”

It is easy to sympathise with the trainers of good horses who face big handicaps fresh up but the flip side is handicappers and race programmers trying to actually attract fields, with trainers of less-performed horses willing to take on the proven open class pacer but only if they think they have a winning chance.

The reality is, very few pacers win any type of race off a 30m handicap these days, so it is punter beware tonight, albeit there is only one sole runner in Black Mach on the front line tonight.

Mo’unga finished third at the Addington trials last week to Franco Marek and Alta Meteor, the latter back at the races tonight after nearly nine months off the scene.

“He was racing really well heading into the NZ Cup last year, finishing third to Merlin in the Flying Stakes at Ashburton but we didn’t see the best of him in the Cup," says Telfer.

“He has had bone chips in his hocks since his three-year-old season so we bit the bullet this year and got them taken out.

“I am not sure how much they were bothering him but he seems a happy horse now.”

So can Alta Meteor do what maybe Mo’unga can’t tonight?

“We all know it isn’t easy but I think the start will be crucial for him,” explains Telfer.

“If he flies away like he can and gets in front of a few well then I’d be happy for Tim [Williams} to be more aggressive on him.

“But if he doesn’t make up that ground and is near last in a strung out field it becomes a lot more taxing to put him in the race in his first start after so long off.”

Team Telfer, who were last week annointed the trainer’s premiership winner by the TAB, have three reps in the race but Steve says even with 20m head starts over Alta Meteor he can’t see Slots or Miki Bennett beating their stablemate.

There are plenty of chances in the National though headed by Franco Marek, who looked forward when holding Alta Metoer at the trials last week while American Me has race fitness on his side after his nifty little North Island trip.

Got You Covered was good winning last start and add to the chances in a good old fashioned handicap, and an early season pointer to whether backmarkers are the new pariahs of pacing punting.

Earlier in the night one of the most prized events on the junior driver calendar will be held with the running of the Darren De Filippi Memorial, the race that celebrates the life of Darren, the junior driver son of Colin and Julie De Filippi, who tragically died in as car crash returning from a race meeting in 1995.

With the esteem the De Filippi family is held in to win “Darren’s race”  is always considered an honour and favourite tonight will be Princess Sadie with Hayden Douglas in the sulky.