Big half hour for Herlihy at Addington and Alexandra Park

By Michael Guerin

Champion horseman Tony Herlihy is in for a very interesting 30 minutes tonight.

Because even our most successful ever driver would rarely have enjoyed the Inter Island interest he has between 9pm and 9.30pm tonight.

Herlihy will be at Addington where he partners Lucky Luka (R10, No.10), who he also trains, in the $200,000 NZB Harness Million for the juvenile boys.

Drawn two on the second line Lucky Luka is the second favourite for the sales series race and he has traveled south beautifully, arriving on Tuesday morning.

But around about the time Herlihy is ungearing Lucky Luka, or if things go well getting the winning trophy, his star trotting filly Our Col resumes at Alexandra Park, officially 19 minutes after the Harness Million starts.

Our Col will eventually join Lucky Luka as part of Herlihy’s spring southern raid team but resumes in a strong intermediate trot tonight alongside stablemate Inasinglemoment.

With Herlihy at southern headquarters Tony Cameron will partner Our Col while stable junior driver Holly Moralde Sands will drive Inasinglemoment in one of her biggest racenight assignments.

The pair both start off 10m in a good field, conceding a start to an in-form trotter in Bolt For The Hill, but the Herlihy pair’s class is undoubted.

Our Col showed real x-factor last campaign, including setting a national 2200m mobile record at Cambridge, but the boss says she won’t be at her peak tonight.

“She has only had one trial and was good in that and has worked well since but there will be improvement in her,” he says.

“She is a very good filly but it is a tough assignment in that grade and is off 10m with horses behind her on 20m but she seems to only ever want to trot so I think she will handle the start all right.

“She is the class act but we all know what it can be like for horses coming back fresh up.”

Herlihy is pleased to be able to give Moralde Sands a racenight drive on Inasinglemoment, who won her last start after returning from a two-year layoff during which she produced a foal.

“Holly has driven her a few workouts and she is a lovely mare to drive so I am sure they will get on great.

“But Our Col would still be my best chance of the two.”

The Alexandra Park meeting hosts two super even Metro Finals, with the handicaps making the $30,000 trot a real puzzle, especially as favourite Maro Mackendon faces a 20m backmark in a capacity field.

And the Pacing Metro Final is complicated not only by the depth, with six or seven winning chances, but by the fact it is 1700m meaning those who get back might struggle to find an easy sectional to improve during the running.

War Chief deserves favouritism after his huge win last Friday but so much will depend on who gets to the marker pegs first and how much gas they use to get there and then when the pressure from the back starts.

As for Addington, Herlihy says Lucky Luka should enjoy the long home straight but he’d like to see some early fireworks to bring the swoopers into the race.

“He traveled down well and was out having a jog a couple of hours after he got here and seems happy,” says Herlihy.

“It is going to be a good race with a few of the other good ones also drawn on the second line with us but he is in with a real shot if things go our way.”