As reminders go, Franco Nelson's front-running Kaikoura Cup win yesterday was a pretty handy one just a week out from the New Zealand Trotting Cup.
All the talk in the build-up towards the second Tuesday in November has been about the All Stars Stables trio of Have Faith In Me, Lazarus and Smolda, who have deservedly filled the top three spots in the fixed odds market.
But with the way Franco Nelson stepped at the 2400m start point yesterday, and the way he unleashed two 400m splits in the 27-second category, the Robert Dunn-trained and John Dunn-driven 8yr-old might just prevent the New Zealand Cup becoming a Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen benefit.
His good standing-start manners were magnified when Smolda was fairly away from barrier 1 but had to settle for the parked spot outside Franco Nelson for the duration of the group 2 feature.
Franco Nelson dropped Smolda at the turn, but to the latter's credit, he fought back to keep the margin to 1¾ lengths in the second-quickest Kaikoura Cup since it was first run in 1967 - just 0.1 seconds outside Sushi Sushi's race record of 2:55.5 set in 2012.
"Once I got the easy lap, I had to really stay there for the last 1000m with Smolda outside me,'' John Dunn told Trackside TV's Greg O'Connor.
Franco Nelson's last 800m was clocked at 54.6, making it very hard for others to chase from the back. Other than Smolda's brave run, No Doctor Needed hit the line well for third, while Titan Banner recovered from an early break to finish sixth.
"He'll go away from that confident and good within himself, so that's just what we needed,'' Dunn said.
The TAB bookmakers reacted by halving Franco Nelson's quote for the New Zealand Cup from $15 to $7.50.
Bordeaux adopted similar tactics in the group 3 South Bay Trotters Cup, running his rivals ragged to win by 1½ lengths over the trailing Le Reveur. Outside the placegetters, Daryl Boko's fourth held plenty of merit.
Sunny Ruby's chances went west when she broke stride early, finishing eighth, while Amaretto Sun's hopes were blown when he did not step away from the inside of the second line.
Moonrock continued to deliver on his promise that prompted connections to throw in a nomination for the New Zealand Cup, sitting parked for the last lap to win the $50,000 sales series pace.
