Merlin ends week on high at Addington

[Wandering Eyes]

By Michael Guerin

This one meant just that little bit more.

Maybe it was because Merlin’s win in the $200,000 Allied Security New Zealand Pacing Free-For-All came at the end of a statement day for trainers Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan.

They had earlier won New Zealand’s first $500,000 slot race, the Hill Lee and Scott THE VELOCITY with Better Knuckle Up and the $120,000 IRT Sires’ Stakes Trot with Meant To Be, both also driven by Zachary Butcher.

After a frustrating last fortnight that felt good, the exclamation mark Butcher’s rare salute at the line.

It also feel that little more special because Tuesday had not gone how the stable had dreamed, their horses good but not good enough.

“I said to the boys on Wednesday this is Cup week and the best of the best are here so it is a privilege to win any race so let’s go back on Friday and try and do better,” said Purdon.

They did.

But Merlin’s win also meant that little but more to Purdon and his two partners/mates because of how he won it and what had happened in Tuesday’s Cup.

Merlin was expected to finish closer than fourth in the Cup, which shows just how highly he is rated that fourth in a Cup isn’t good enough.

It appeared the searing pace of the Cup didn’t suit Merlin but Purdon is adamant it wasn’t from a lack of staying ability.

So to see him sit parked and beat Better Eclipse and Catch A Wave spoke to his determination albeit over the more-speed based 1980m mobile.

“Nobody will convince me he can’t stay,” says Purdon.

“I have put sulkies on too many good horses to know the difference and he tried his heart out up the straight on Tuesday.

“That is why we are still happy to aim him at the Auckland Cup (Dec 31) because I know he will be able to get 3200m.

“And as he gets older maybe he can handle the 3200m of the Cup here, even though it is a very different 3200m.”

Merlin was all muscle and power after sitting parked on a cold and bleak Friday night, one which kept the spectators inside but the action was red hot on the track.

Merlin will now stick around Canterbury for the new $200,000 Christian Cullen in December before that Auckland Cup and then and eventual defence of the $1million slot race at Cambridge he won last year when it was known as the Race by Grins.

His last leg of that major race treble on Friday may have capped a frustrating fortnight in which the stable has lost the services of Cold Chisel with injury while a few others have had no luck or lost their best form.

But often perception and reality are two different things.

Because in the last three weeks the Purdon/Phelan team has won nearly $1million worth of races.

And they have now won the only two pacing slot races run in New Zealand this year.

View the full article