Driver Ricky May hopes Pat's Delight can bounce back from a plain performance on Tuesday to win the New Zealand Free-For-All at Addington Raceway today.
The Cran Dalgety-trained pacer was New Zealand's most talked-about horse after his stunning second to Spankem in the Kaikoura Cup. That prompted $1million-plus offers from Australian buyers, which were turned down by his owner, Pat Kubala.
But Pat's Delight looked far from a million-dollar pacer when he sprinted only fairly out of the one-one to run third to All U Need Is Faith in the Junior Free-For-All on New Zealand Cup day.
Dalgety and driver Ricky May are willing to put that down to the way the race was run.
"I think he is up to this level. On his run at Kaikoura he surely is and I am sure he can follow speed really well," May said.
"It was a pretty tricky race, that free-for-all, and it probably just wasn't run to suit. He felt great in the running and then he just didn't let down.
"I talked to Cran for quite a bit about it."
Pat's Delight, Turn It Up and Spankem make up a dangerous three-pronged attack of 4yr-olds on the 1980m feature. They will be out to emulate the brilliant win Ultimate Machete produced as a 4yr-old to beat Tiger Tara in the race last year.
Turn It Up could complete a remarkable rise to the top of New Zealand's pacing ranks with victory. Trained by the all-conquering Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen, he will step into rare territory by competing in one of the country's premier group 1 races in just his seventh start.
Turn It Up should get every opportunity after drawing barrier 2. He displayed good gate speed when crushing his rivals in a middle-grade race on New Zealand Cup day.
Pat's Delight has barrier 3 and he has Jack's Legend inside him in barrier 1.
May is well aware that though he has a brilliant draw on paper, making the lead or just staying handy to the pace will be tricky.
"You have got to remember that the ones drawn inside us have got stacks of gate-speed, too. I just really hope he can stay handy to give him his best chance, but it won't be easy."
Pat's Delight and Turn It Up are likely to settle well in front of Tiger Tara early in the race. The Australian raider has copped his second tricky draw in a week - barrier 9.
The draw was arguably his undoing in his epic effort for second behind Thefixer in Tuesday's cup. The Kevin Pizzuto-trained stallion got back to fourth-last after the start of the 3200m race from barrier 12 and made his move mid-race.
May was forced to make a tough call in driving Pat's Delight rather than A G's White Socks.
"The draw came in to it. They have been great owners, the A G's White Socks team.
"I probably shouldn't have dropped him, but at the end of the day in that field Pat's Delight is the better drive."
Matthew Williamson will drive A G's Whitesocks, whose prospects plummeted when he landed barrier 8.
Turn It Up will be joined by three of his All Stars stablemates. Spankem and Cruz Bromac look good chances from barriers 4 and 6, respectively. Eamon Maguire starts from barrier 7 for
All Stars.
