Majestic Man cruises to effortless win

By Jonny Turner

Otago trotter Majestic Man made a stunning statement on night two of the Interdominions at Alexandra Park last night when thumping his rivals with incredible ease.

Driver Brad Williamson sat motionless in the cart in the home straight as the trotter trained by his father, Phil, dashed away from a high class field to win by four and a half lengths.

Williamson confirmed after the drubbing of their rivals that Majestic Man’s win was as easy as it looked.

“He never left second gear tonight, he just cruised it,” the driver said.

“He is just in the zone right now, he loves it here and Dad has done a great job with him.”

The way the first 1700m trotting heat panned out meant Williamson’s journey to the races proved more stressful than the race itself.

Williamson missed an earlier drive behind Fanny Hill at Alexandra Park after striking flight troubles.

The reinsman was forced to rebook a flight from Dunedin and hit what would prove to be the Interdominion heat winning jackpot when securing its last available seat.

Master trainer Phil Williamson had Majestic Man in prime condition for last night’s heat after the horse had failed to back up from a short turnaround in his previous attempt.

Majestic Man struggled in Habibi Inta’s Dominion after going a slashing race for fourth in the New Zealand Free-For-All three days earlier.

There were no such troubles when Majestic Man produced his brilliant performance last night just four days after his sensation run for third on night one of the Interdominions.

“It was a wee bit different, that was two miles (3200m) and this was basically one,” the trainer said.

“He went a huge race in the free-for-all, he was three wide down back, if he had had a better draw he could have won that race.”

“We definitely had some concerns after the Dominion, it was just out of character for him to go that bad.”

Habibi Inta chased in vain to finish four and a half lengths behind Majestic Man in Tuesday night’s first trotting heat.

Though the Paul Nairn trained trotter was comprehensively beaten, his Interdominion campaign took a major upward turn after his head-scratching performance on night one.

Massive Metro produced a sound performance to run third, after trailing the quinella makers home.

Winterfell ran fourth after getting trapped in the one-one before the home turn and not finding clear air until the race was effectively over.

Winterfell’s performance was enough to see him retain favouritism for the Interdominion trotting final after Tuesday night’s two heats.

The All Stars squaregaiter was rated at $3.50 odds ahead of Marcoola ($3.80) and Majestic Man ($4).