Fan favourite back at Addington tonight

By Michael Guerin

Had tonight’s main pace at Addington been a month or two ago young gun driver Carter Dalgety would have viewed it very differently.

Because back then he would have wanted one of his favourite horses in Fernetti to win but would have expected stablemate Watermelon Sugar to beat him home.Not any more.

Fernetti has become one of the iron horses in the lower grades in Canterbury and has hung tough to be runner-up twice and then a winner on three of Addington’s biggest days.

“He has really stepped up when it matters,” says Dalgety, whose parents Cran and Chrissie train the three-year-old.

“He is one of my favourites because I bought him on spec at the sales for $22,000 and a lot of people know I got a bunch of my mates in him and we are loving it.

“They are legends and I reckon we had about 50 people there when he won last Sunday.”

Fernetti steps up in grade tonight, for example he races Heisenberg who just five days ago was fourth to Beach Ball and Self Assured in the Summer Cup, a far cry from what Fernetti has been racing.

While Dalgety doesn’t know if Fernetti can bridge that gap yet and he thinks the son of Sweet Lou will get there.

“To line them up, we also have Watermelon Sugar in this race and a month or two ago there is no way I would think Fernetti could beat him but I think he can this week.”

The small field has plenty of chances and it wouldn’t surprise to see any of the seven win.

Dalgety says a poor draw may be all that stops Ragazzo Mach winning R4 tonight after he finished fourth in the Group 1 juvenile boy’s race on Sunday.

“We were almost going to give him a spell but thought he could pick up a maiden but the draw will make it interesting for him.”

The Dalgety team has eased up on two of its stars after Cup week so neither Krug nor Republican Party will be at the Invercargill Cup next week.

“Krug has been on the water walker and we will aim to have him ready for Auckland,” says Dalgety.

“And Republican Party has gone for a short spell because his big recovery in the Cup after his early break took it out of him.”