Sundees Son reigns supreme

By Michael Guerin

The king of trotting is back and not in a mood to be argued with.

Now that Sundees Son went anywhere, he just didn’t go to the winners circle at Cambridge last week which was a surprise and suggested he was vulnerable in the National Trot at Alexandra Park on Thursday night.

As it turned out, he wasn’t.

The wonderfully talented gelding ended, for a while at least, the argument over who is New Zealand’s best trotting stayer when he easily beat Bolt For Brilliance and Majestic Man in the $95,000 group one, aptly named cause the winner set a new national record.

Sundees Son was able to run to the lead uncontested in the middle stages and adds the National to the Anzac Cup and Row Cup as group one wins at Alexandra Park, as well as a Jewels and a Dominion at Addington, giving him the record of a great trotter with the promise of so much more to come.

At his best he is something special and a testament to the skills of trainer Robert and John Dunn, who have had their troubles with the Sundees Son since his early days but he is now paying them back in spades.

While he may be the best trotter in Australasia the change of the Great Southern Star to two heat races in a night over 1720m at Melton on February 5 doesn’t suit Sundees Son and he can be expected to stay home and contest races like the NZ Trotting Champs, Anzac Cup and Rowe Cup again.

By then Bolt For Brilliance may be more mature and hardened to challenge him, having only just dipped his toe in the open class pool.

But for now, Sundees Son is the king.