Paramount Kiwi goes four from five - by a nose

By Michael Guerin

The closing stages of last night’s IRT Sires Stakes Prelude at Alexandra Park convinced Matty White his outstanding young trotter Paramount Kiwi is going to need to get better.

White is confident he will.

The three-year-old gave the bookies a blood nose when he speared to the lead in the 1700m mobile and clung on to beat southern visitors Princess Sadie, Empire City and Bounce N Beyond.

The race was a dream result for one of the winner’s owners in Fred Donovan, who shares in the ownership of both first and second even though they are trained by very different Mattys (one White, one Williamson).

The way Princess Sadie closed late and Empire City made ground after having a good look around Alexandra Park on her northern debut suggested they will be big improvers for the races ahead and White says his four-from-five young star will too.

“He is still very much on the way up,” he says of Paramount Kiwi, who was backed from $4.50 to $2.

“He has only had two runs and he had a bit of setback a month or so ago so we eased up on him.

“So he will get better but so might some of them. I think it is going to be a pretty good three-year-old crop.”

Paramount Kiwi will try and defend his Harness Million Trot title next week, a race Empire City isn’t eligible for, before they all meet again in the Sires’ Stakes Final and the Northern Derby next month.

After that busy and intriguing autumn White says his son of Father Patrick will most likely head to the paddock to get ready for the intense end to the season.

The crop does look a talented one if maybe not the deepest so it will wouldn’t surprise to see draws and manners decide some of the big races ahead.

It was a night where the trotters stole the show with All Cashed Up bolting away with the Border Fencing Services Handicap Trot even after starting from a 30m back mark over 2200m, giving the Wallis/Hackett stable and driver Crystal Hackett a trotting double after Magic Dash won the first race, the National Style Stakes at Alexandra Park 24 May Handicap Trot.

Manners proved the key for the beautifully-bred Higher Power in the IRT Young Guns 2YO Trotters Series Heat 1 Mobile Trot but his stablemate Meant To Be was a real eyecatcher in second, later disqualified for breaking.

Higher Power was one of three age group winners on the night for the Purdon/Phelan stable has they continued a run of winning weeks that has made them our clear training stars of the autumn.

Their juvenile filly Youretheonethatiwant led home a stable trifecta when downing I’m Sandra Dee in the Gallagher Insurance Young Guns 2YO Series Heat 2 Mobile Pace.

And the stable quinellaed the last, the Magness Benrow Sires' Stakes 3YO Fillies Heat 3, when Duchess Megxit turned the race into trackwork, coming out of the trail to cruise a 26.9 second last 400m.