Mighty Logan heads stable quinella in Worthy Queen

[Wandering Eyes]

By Michael Guerin

Mighty Logan is ready to take the next step and it might be at the perfect time.

The quirky trotter led home a Diamond Racing-trained quinella in the Worthy Queen Trot at Addington on Friday night, beating stablemate I Dream Of Jeannie and Muscle Mountain in a pressure-filled race.

While he made the most of a 10m head start over the hotshot backmarkers by stepping quickly and heading to the lead soon after Mighty Logan was then taken on by One Over All.

They ran hard early and that meant those backmarkers, led up by Muscle Mountain and tracked by Oscar Bonavena, were deterred from taking off and when they did it was too late.

Because even after his early exertions Mighty Logan had shot to a winning advantage soon after entering the straight, his stablemate using the passing lane late to grab second. 

Muscle Mountain, Oscar Bonavena and Bet N Win all reaffirmed again just how hard those backmark handicaps are to overcome but the honours were still with the winner.

And driver John Dunn says it may not be for the last time this spring.

Mighty Logan suggested the same last autumn when he won the Anzac Cup at Alexandra Park only to fail in the Rowe Cup two weeks later.

But Dunn says there was an excuse and a blessing in all of that.

“The Rowe Cup wasn’t his fault, the horse outside him started hitting its sulky and getting keen and that made this guy just pull way too hard.

“So I am willing to forgive that but more importantly that whole trip north helped really make him,” says Dunn.

“He feels stronger and more experienced now and I can’t see any reason he won’t win a really big one, even the Dominion, this time in.

“I know it won’t be easy but I think he is the horse on the way up.”

Mighty Logan is also suited by the 3200m of the Dominion as he prefers the back straight starting point at Addington as opposed to the 2600m start point.

While he will be back on level marks with the big three in the Dominion, you get the feeling Mighty Logan has closed the gap and is the trotter heading in the right direction.

While the favoured trotters couldn’t overcome their backmarks, Auckland Cup winner Republican Party finally broke the hoodoo for those off the big handicaps this spring when he made short work of his 25m handicap in the open pace.

He bobbled for a few strides at the start but got tactical advantage over favourite Akuta and driver Carter Dalgety won the race when he moved early on Republican Party and wrested the lead.

He never looked like being beaten after and he confirmed himself as the best of the Kiwi defenders in the IRT New Zealand Cup a month on Saturday.

“He will probably back up here next week and then we have options like Ashburton but the Kaikoura Cup is not out of the question either,” said Dalgety.

Earlier in the night Wat Next lived up to her breeding winning the NZBS Harness Million for the two-year-old pacing fillies, paying off a gamble by trainers Mark and Nathan Purdon to bring her south a month ago even though she was unraced.

She was also part on a driving treble for Bob Butt early in the evening and Wat Next looks to have an exciting future as she was clearly too good for the other fillies and yet looks the one with the most natural improvement to come.

Wat Next is a daughter of Wat A Woman who has already left 1:49.6 mare Manhattan and NZ Oaks winner No Matter Wat.

She wasn’t the only really smart young filly on show on Friday night as Winelight downed her stablemate Arafura with both excellent in the Leigh and Greg Ayers Classic for the three-year-old fillies, the pair peaking nicely for their features to come for trainers Hayden and Amanda Cullen.

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