Friday Nights Lights featuring Marketplace and Mantra Blue

It's Friday night with dual racing at Addington and Alexandra Park.  All eyes will be on superstar Marketplace in the night's feature race, the $200,000 Garrards Sires' Stakes Final at Addington at 9.39pm while up north the very promising Mantra Blue resumes in the North Island Breeders Stakes at 8.25pm.

Bettors Anvil drawn to test Marketplace in $200,000 Sires' Stakes Final 

By Michael Guerin

Tim Williams knows that now or never may actually end up being never.

But he thinks tonight’s $200,000 Garrards Sires’ Stakes Final at Addington is his best chance to find out whether Bettors Anvil can beat three-year-old superstar pacer Marketplace.

Williams drives the muscular colt who is trained by his bosses Steve and Amanda Telfer and he gets the best of the barrier draws for the big three in the Group 1 sprint.

The draws are a reversal of the three favourites rankings on performance so far: Bettors Anvil has barrier 4 and the gate speed to use it, Got The Chocolates has been our second best three-year-old and gets barrier 7 while the undoubted star of the crop, Marketplace starts from the outside of the second line.

Marketplace has won all the races that matter in the last year but Williams, the hugely popular driver who is closing in on 1000 career wins, thinks tonight if his best chance to stretch him.

“We have the draw and the chance to use it,” he says.

“The trip north has really improved this horse and he knows what it is all about now. He moved really fast when I wanted to lead on him last week and while that wasn’t against these horses I think he deserves his chance to do the same again this week.”

That is conservative driver code for “I’d be keen to stay in front” or at worst make Got The Chocolates work and then the two pretenders can lead and trail and if Marketplace can work around the field, sit parked and still beat them, so be it.

“We know what a great horse Marketplace is but hopefully he will settle a long way behind us so we get our chance,” says Williams.

While Bettors Anvil and Got The Chocolates should sort themselves out in the first 600m, Marketplace has the advantage that the rest of his rivals aren’t good enough to get in his way so when he moves he should be able to cruise to the parked out position without too much traffic.

That could leave punters asking themselves a simple question: are you happy taking $1.28 for Marketplace to win sitting parked the last 1000m?

The answer for multi punters might be yes, straight out win punters might just wait and watch.

Williams, who sits fourth on the premiership, has a strong book of drives across a stacked Addington programme rating Seaside Rose (R5), Father Time (R9) and Akatea (R11) as his next best chances.

“Seaside Rose has been going great races and she will going forward from her wide draw because she is a front of the field horse,” says Williams.

“She has to be hard to beat because I think she knocked off last start and while her stablemate [Sweet Diamond] is also racing well I think my mare is the better chance.”

Williams says Father Time is one of his favourite horses and he’d love to win tonight’s $50,000 NZB Uncut Gem Classic Trot.

“He is a real dude of a horse and Kevin [Townley, trainer] has set him for this race,” enthuses Williams.

“He has trialled well since he last raced and I think off the front he will be hard to catch.”

He thinks Akatea should be better suited well drawn tonight over 1980m tonight than she was over 2600m on this track last start while he has no doubts about Double Jeopardy’s ability in Race 8 but also realises he is a field full of quasi open class horses.

Tonight’s meeting sees juveniles Fugitive (Race 2) and Duchess Maria (Race 6) expected to repeat their recent Alexandra Park wins while an even pacing fillies field in the Bionic Chance Bracelet adds to one of the deepest Addington meetings of the year so far.

Much interest in Mantra Blue's return at Alexandra Park 

By Michael Guerin

Trainer Zachary Butcher doesn’t know whether he likes the new Mantra Blue quite as much as the old one.

The $30,000 Powell Transport North Island Breeders Stakes at Alexandra Park tonight (8.25pm) will go a long way to helping him decide.

Mantra Blue is one of only four horses the superstar driver actually trains and she is undoubtedly a good one, having finished second to the unbeaten Millwood Nike in a Group 1 Nevele R Final at just her third career start.

A month later Mantra Blue was just nosed out in the NZ Oaks but she has only raced sparingly since, just five starts at the back end of last season. 

After being given plenty of time to get over that campaign she has returned a different mare but Butcher isn’t sure whether that is for the better or not. 

“She has come back very, very relaxed whereas in the past she was always in a real hurry to get anywhere,” says Butcher.

“That could be a good thing as she is now tackling standing start racing and being more relaxed could help.

“But I also can’t be sure. It could be that being an older mare she isn’t quite as interested.

“I don’t think that is the case with her but this race will tell us more.”

Butcher gave Mantra Blue a very short lived standing start trial at Pukekohe last week when he asked her to step away and then when she did that safely pulled her up straight away.

“She is well enough to win this week but so much depends on what your rivals do in a race like this,” he says.

“We are off 20m and if they step and run hard and she has to chase then she will need a breather and that makes it harder to get handy in the middle stages.

“So the tempo will play a big role and I can’t really be advising people to back her because I don’t know what the others are going to do.”

Any one of those “others” could win without shocking as the handicaps make for an even contest with all seven starters having different possible scenarios that would favour them.

Butcher has a great shot as a feature race double as he will partner Halberg in the main trot tonight where he has the manners to overcome his 10m handicap, especially with only three rivals on the front line ahead of him.

There is also nobody better placed to judge the merits of the two favourites in the last race as he is the usual pilot for both Greased Lightnin and Runkle Crunch.

“They are quite different horses. Greased Lightnin is faster while Runkle Crunch is quite tough,” he explains.

“I’m driving Greased Lightnin and if we get the right sort of run he is the one to beat.”