Herlihy looks huge chance with young trotter at Alexandra Park

By Michael Guerin

Tony Herlihy doesn’t usually talk about young horses the way he does about Our Col.

Which suggests she only needs to behave to be the bet of the night at Alexandra Park tonight.

The three-year-old trotting filly returns against older race hardened rivals in a 2200m standing start, the sort of mental challenge which would rarely see a young one-start trotter open as the $1.65 favourite.

Our Col’s only start was in a two-year-old mobile trot with just three rivals in November but she bolted in by four lengths and trotted her last 800m in 58.5 seconds, which would be a bit quicker than many of the journeymen trotters she meets tonight could trot.

But there is more to the story than that.

Our Col’s only public outing since was in a workout before the races at Alexandra Park in March 13 where she trotted the 2200m standing start (tonight’s conditions) in 2:46.8, inside the national record for a three-year-old filly.
 
That record won’t count because it was only a workout but to make it even more impressive Our Col did it solo after her only rival galloped and she trotted her last 800m in 57.2 seconds.

“She is a good filly,” says Herlihy.

“She has always had something about her and in that workout that was about as slow as I could make her go, it almost felt cruel making her go that slow even though she was by herself.

“I really like her and we are aiming her at the best three-year-old races over the next few months.”

Our Col is already favourite for the Northern Trotting Derby on May 1 and after that workout two weeks ago only a blip in her manners tonight could seem enough to beat her. 

“Her manners have been very good so let's hope that stays that way on Friday.”

Herlihy also takes a handy maiden pacer in Mr Putt (R3, No.10) to The Park tonight and says while he shouldn’t be a maiden for long tonight’s field has enough depth to make his second line draw a challenge.

Our most successful ever domestic reinsman starts the night with a good winning hope in Race 1 after Mako was only run down late over 2200m after leading last start.

He drops back to 1700m tonight but has gate speed and rated 1:55 this track and distance in October when swooping so has options tonight.

One of the other features of tonight’s meeting will be Higher Power trying to overcome a 30m back mark in Race 2 but the way he has been trotting in recent starts he should be up to that task.