Cruz takes aim at Sniper
New Zealand Cup winner Cruz Bromac set up an Australia versus New Zealand battle in next Saturday’s $500,000 Interdominion Pacing Championship final (2700m, mobile), with a faultless display to win the last heat of the series on Friday night at Auckland’s Alexandra Park.
The All Stars-trained pacer was rewarded both for his consistent form in the series and for his massively improved manners when holding out stablemate Thefixer by threequarters of a length.
Cruz Bromac showed no signs of the wayward tendencies he displayed during and before the Interdominion series with his third perfect display of the championship. The rugged eightyear-old’s love of right-handed racing, where he can stride out more fluently than in the opposite direction, has him ready to give his stablemate and unbeaten series rock star Ultimate Sniper a stern test in the final.
Melbourne-based part-owner Peter O’Shea said there was no doubt who Cruz Bromac will be representing.
He and his fellow Australian owners could pull off a masterstroke that would win them an incredible New Zealand Cup and Interdominion double while flying the Australian flag, following their move to place the horse with Kiwi champion trainers Mark Purdon and
Natalie Rasmussen for the spring and summer.
The final heat of the
Interdominion pacing series bought mixed emotions for O’Shea, who races the horse with wife Zilla, and Danny and Joanna Zavitsanos.
The O’Sheas also race Bling It On, who dropped out to run a shock second-last in the second of Friday night’s pacing heats.
‘‘I am excited about Cruz, but it has been disappointing with Bling It On,’’ Peter O’Shea said.
‘‘I thought he was really going to run a big race tonight and we were going to have a two-pronged attack.
‘‘He has had a shocking series, he choked down the first heat and he couldn’t get out in the second heat.’’
The All Stars quinella-makers gapped the rest in the final heat, with northern-trained Triple Eight heading the rest of the field home to take third. Triple Eight has already made one Australian owner’s dream come true by making the series final.
Popular octogenarian owner, Father Brian Glasheen, has landed a final starter with his first runner an incredible 69 years after attending his first Interdominion series in 1950.
Sicario was next home behind Triple Eight, ahead of dual Kiwi heat winner, A G’s White Socks, who was sound in fifth.
Not An Option tracked Unition into the home straight, but conceded a length advantage to his rival as he lost his bearings slightly across the famous
Trentham junction. Innes got to work in the closing stages as Not An Option knuckled down to his task and rushed past Power ’n’ Glory and Unition in the final 100m and cement his place in the field for the $1m Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) at Ellerslie next month.
‘‘He’s never put a foot wrong this horse,’’ stable representative Chris McNab said.
‘‘He just ticks every box you put in front of him and he was just too good.’’ The colt will now be freshened.