Photo: Trish Dunell
Cambridge trainer Ross Paynter took two horses north to Alexandra Park’s meeting on Friday night and he almost went home with the perfect result.
Expensive Crumpet started the night in perfect fashion when winning the Dunstan Speedfeed Summer Series Trot (2200m).
The daughter of Quaker Jet made a slow but solid start and driver David Butcher was able to find a handy position four back on the fence before securing the one-one behind Tobruk.
Butcher asked her to improve three-wide turning for home and Expensive Crumpet was able to run over the top of her rivals to win by 2-1/4 lengths over Tobruk, with a further 1-1/2 lengths back to Rosie in third.
Paynter was pleased with the result and said he was relatively confident heading into the race despite his charge breaking last start.
“It was on the cards,” Paynter said. “She had been racing really well.
“David drove her perfectly. She probably should have won last start, she was getting a nice trip, that’s when she tapped a knee and had a gallop.
“Her runs before that were pretty good really.”
Later on the card, stablemate Anditover nearly caused an upset when going down by just over a head to Sertorius in the Hydroflow Handicap Trot (2200m).
Paynter was pleased to see Anditover put it all together on Friday night after breaking at the Auckland track when first-up a fortnight ago.
“It was really good because the first run back he had a little gallop out of the gates, so we didn’t really get a race under his belt at all,” Paynter said.
“He was probably just short of a run tonight but he went well. He sat outside the leader for a good majority of it and only went down by just over a head (in third).
“He just keeps coming. He is a real little stayer and tries his guts out. He is a pretty handy horse when he is right.”
The five-win gelding will now be set for some targets over the Christmas-New Year period, while Paynter said Expensive Crumpet will likely head to the spelling paddock.
“We may give Expensive Crumpet a break because there are some nice mares races coming up later in the year, so if we don’t give her a break soon she probably won’t get one,” Paynter said.
“We plan to aim Anditover for Christmas racing with the better stakes. He should be coming into his own by then.” – Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk
