A G Hunter Cup and Great Southern Star 2024

[Messenger]

13 days away - Feb 3
The distance may not be his specialty but the Ballarat Cup was a decent hitout for Catch A Wave
He is $11 and already here

[Messenger]

The noms

BETTER ECLIPSE

BEYOND DELIGHT

BULLETPROOF BOY

CANTFINDABETTORMAN

CATCH A WAVE

CORRAVALLY STAR

CURLY JAMES

CYA ART

DONT STOP DREAMING

ENCIPHER

HURRICANE HARLEY

KANENA PROVLIMA

LEAP TO FAME

MACH DAN

MAX DELIGHT

PETES SAID SO

SERG BLANCO

SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS

TAIPO

TIMS A TROOPER

TRIPLE EIGHT

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/fame-and-dreams-beckon-as-hunter-cup-noms-revealed/?fbclid=IwAR2U7a1LjAGSM8MWn3-WeBPm3BFQ4tjClHsK2uOM-Bip8qXHbAGa7zbHP1M

[Messenger]

Here is the field

2024 SENTrack A G Hunter Cup (2760m)

BETTER ECLIPSE (Jess Tubbs)

BEYOND DELIGHT (Emma Stewart)

CATCH A WAVE (Andy Gath)

CURLY JAMES (Courtney Laker)

CYA ART (Jason Grimson)

DONT STOP DREAMING (Mark and Nathan Purdon)

KANENA PROVLIMA (KerryAnn Morris)

LEAP TO FAME (Grant Dixon)

MACH DAN (Emma Stewart)

MAX DELIGHT (David Aiken)

SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS (Luke McCarthy)

TAIPO (Brad Hewitt)

EMERG: CANTFINDABETTORMAN (Luke McCarthy)

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/stars-set-for-epic-showdown-as-hunter-cup-field-is-revealed/

[Messenger]

Lucky Leap To Fame and Dont Stop Dreaming have come or else it would be a pretty weak Hunter Cup

Cya Art gets a start with only 6 wins to his name

[Messenger]

So Swayzee wasn't even nommed (2nd fav a week ago - easy money for bookies!)
Has Jason Grimson ever had a horse perform for longer than 12 months?

[Jasper]

Or 12 starts (I might be wrong)

[Messenger]

While Trainor's good results with I Cast No Shadow only ran from Feb '22 to Feb '23 (2nd in last year's Hunter Cup) he did have 20 starts

[Messenger]

A fit Honolua Bay would really have taken this race to another level

Add Act Now and RNRDoo at their best along with the injured mares Encipher and Ladies In Red - WOW that would have been some field (without even needing any NZers or Swayzee)

[Messenger]

You would think that the draw has destroyed the chances of all those on the 2nd line bar Don't Stop Dreaming

https://www.harness.org.au/racing/fields/race-fields/?mc=MX030224#MXM03022401

[Messenger]

A fit Honolua Bay would really have taken this race to another level

Add Act Now and RNRDoo at their best along with the injured mares Encipher and Ladies In Red - WOW that would have been some field (without even needing any NZers or Swayzee)

RNRDoo and Ladies both went around in a trial at Melton today !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ps RNR won it by many, many lengths - why would Mick Stanley want to do that?

[Messenger]

Maybe the solid trial is because if your horse is older than four, there are not many high stakes lead up races before the MM qualifiers on March 2

[Messenger]

It seems a massive ask bringing Majestuoso back for the Great Southern Star's heat and final format after he has been off the scene for 11 months

https://www.harness.org.au/racing/fields/race-fields/?mc=MX030224#MXM03022408

[Messenger]

There are some ridiculous starters in the Great Southern Star
In future I think there should be an entry condition that noms must have a sub 2 min winning time

[Messenger]

I hope Nathan Jack does not regret not taking the opportunity to ease down on Callmethebreeze in that heat
An impressive trotter he surely is

[Messenger]

Weird as Southern Star draw. The favourites got late choices BUT why did Callmethebreeze connections take 10 when they could have had 6 with Just Believe either having to take 7 or 10
Especially weird given post draw interview and Anton Golino saying they would have preferred the front !!!! (they could have???)

[Messenger]

Leap to Fame is so special
Bettors Delight sired the Trifecta

Time was good - only 0.8 secs outside the Tk Rec of Tiger Tara (Bettors Delight) set in the 2019 Hunter Cup

[Messenger]

I don't know that we need the Southern Star and the Hunter Cup on the same night
The Southern Star upstaged the Hunter Cup from a home viewer's perspective

Nathan Jack - so much smarter than this armchair expert LOL
He won the race in the beginning by assessing that Blue Coman would go to the rail, allowing him to push through into the running line and keeping Just Believe working early

[Jasper]

Unfortunately I was reading your posts and had unknowingly left my TV on Sky 2 so only caught the last 400 of the Southern Star. Seemed like a great race! (Missed out on backing it too!)

How close would have Purdon got to Leap to Fame if his horse didn’t go rough in the straight.

From my armchair I am loving the racing tonight re both big races etc. Backed a winner or two also.

[Messenger]

You should have been on TrotsVision Daniel :D

[Jasper]

I was also watching Bunbury re new lights. We have been waiting for that for two years! (It might be my aging eyes but did the track seem a bit blueish in the back straight at Bunbury?)

Hunter Cup was a great night though, with the highlight being the performance and drive of the French horse. Great to see Triple Eight win, given he is one of his recently deceased sire’s best progeny.

Other thoughts- I am in favour of putting the big races together on one night. Wish they would try it here re Pacing Cup and Golden Nugget.

[Messenger]

I like a big card too, it was just with the 2 heats, the draw for the final and then the final of the Great Southern Star, I felt the Hunter Cup got a bit lost

[trish]

Great race the southern star. I read Pat paid a huge amount for the horse & good luck to him. Great run Just Believe as well , he does it tough & digs in deep every start.

Well done to Grant Dixon & team with LTF.

[Messenger]

This was Vics biggest night of the year - the racenight TV coverage was VG, the stars were there and the weather good BUT we have to pull more than 2,000 people. Local footy can pull that
I did a count off some of their crowd drone shots and there was not 1,000 on the lawn and I will be generous and say there could be 1,000 in side.
With free admittance that is not a sport that is going places

[gutwagon]

I really don't like the drone footage of the start of races, just give us the normal angles .

[gutwagon]

During the coverage there was a good story about Just Believe during which G Sugars proudly claimed that he is the only person that works him. Yet he is not listed as his trainer or co trainer. The industry know that he is part of a co training team but HRV don't force them to register that way. This could lead to the same problems that they are having with E Stewart's team.

[Jasper]

I really don't like the drone footage of the start of races, just give us the normal angles .

Totally agree. You can’t differentiate horses, driver and colours, too far away etc. It just doesn’t add to the spectacle of the race in my opinion.

[Messenger]

Drone footage is great for the replay they tend to do immediately following the race