Sometimes missing the big prize has its own bonuses!

2009-02-12T10:54:00.001+10:00

That is how Watpac Interdom 2009 organisers may be starting to feel about the fact New Zealand pacing hero Auckland Reactor is not coming to the series. Sure, they would have initially been disappointed when trainer Mark Purdon decided not to travel to the Gold Coast in time for the series launch on March 14. But as it turns out his loss could be the series gain as a whole, especially as a punting contest. While a series final with Melpark Major, Mr Feelgood, Auckland Reactor and of course Blacks A Fake would have been great, it also could have made for some one-sided betting contests. After all, you throw Auckland Reactor in against the minnows of the series and the win pool isn’t going to attract a lot of action. But with no Auckland Reactor the overall Kiwi interest in the series look certain to be higher than expected.Quite simply, had Auckland Reactor come it might have been him, quasi-Kiwi Mr Feelgood, Gotta Go Cullen and Report For Duty wearing the Silver Fern. But with Auckland Reactor staying home for the Auckland Cup, New Zealand trainers who have seen enough of him to not want to race him if they can avoid it.Which means a whole heap of horses who might have stayed in NZ if Auckland Reactor was going to the Interdoms are now heading to the Gold Coast. One is St Barts, who will race at Harold Park this week and should win to push himself up the rankings.Zenad did that just last week at Moonee Valley and will add to the country circuit there before heading to Queensland. And his stablemates, Changeover and Awesome Armbro, also now look set to cross the Tasman after the Auckland Cup on March 6.Sure, they may not be Auckland Reactor, but they will add to the overall depth of the series and make it more of a true Trans Tasman grudge match.

Michael Guerin

John Curtin knows there will be a moment of regret!

2009-02-02T13:24:00.003+10:00

He will be sitting in his Auckland lounge room late on March 28 watching the Watpac Interdominion Pacing Final live from the Gold Coast. Curtin will, at that moment, wish he and his champion pacer Auckland Reactor were there. They won’t be because Auckland Reactor was pulled out of the series last month by trainer Mark Purdon. Long-term the decision is almost certainly the right one, with Auckland Reactor having a smorgasbord of rich races in New Zealand this season and the world to conquer next year. But it will still be hard for Curtin, Auckland Reactor’s manager for his North American owners, to watch a A$1million race the pacing hero could have, and perhaps should have, won. “It is a $1million after all, and it is the Inter,” says Curtin ruefully. “But we are doing the right thing for the horse. “He is getting bigger and stronger every time I see him and I know he will be better equipped for the Grand Circuit next season.” But while the decision to bypass the series was made for the right reasons, it is still getting harder to swallow.Last week we lost Divisive and Bono’s Best from the series and while it still has plenty of depth, at this stage only Melpark Major would challenge Auckland Reactor for punter’s affection. And to twist the knife that little bit more, Auckland Reactor has shown genuine Grand Circuit-level gate speed twice in the last month. That is so often that difference between winning and losing in Australia, so Auckland Reactor now has the complete package for an Interdom series. It looked every inch at Interdom winner in waiting at Addington last Saturday when he scored the easiest open class win of his career in the $75,000 Summer Cup. He burst to the lead, dawdled around for 2400m then sprinted up the straight to hold out Awesome Armbro in a repeat of the New Zealand Free-For-All quinella.Auckland Reactor paced the final 800m in 54.7 seconds, which he could probably do three times a day if asked, so the race itself was little more than a lucrative trial to take his record to 18 wins from 19 starts. Still, so dominant was the great one he moved in to $1.40 to win the Trillian Trust Auckland Cup on March 6, a race where that newly-discovered gate speed could be a decisive factor. Awesome Armbro showed with his second on Saturday he will be an Auckland Cup factor but it is hard to envisage a scenario under which he will beat Auckland Reactor. But unlike the champ he could get his shot at the Inters, looking a possible dark horse in the series.

Mick Guerin

2009 Watpac Inter Dominion - Official Blog

Sometimes missing the big prize has its own bonuses!

John Curtin knows there will be a moment of regret!