Oamaru harness racing followers are set to see last season's horse of the year in the flesh.
Cran Dalgety is declaring Christen Me ready to go ahead of his resuming run in Friday's Group III Maurice Holmes Vase at Addington and his next stop will be the Group III Hannon Memorial in Oamaru on September 13.
Dalgety is satisfied where his stable star is at after three appearances at the trials this preparation, but there has been a change in plans with the Oamaru trip now on the radar.
Initially only three lead-up races before the New Zealand Trotting Cup were planned because of a gruelling schedule that will see Christen Me head to Perth for the Interdominion heats just days after the cup.
"We'll put a bit of racing into him this time," Dalgety said who was not sure of exact race plans after the Hannon.
Coming off a million dollar plus season that netted the NZ Free-for-all, Auckland, Easter and Victoria Cups plus the Miracle Mile, the now 7-year-old, will start a dominate favourite in the Maurice Holmes Vase despite drawing out wide for the 2600m stand.
"He's pretty tight and ready to go," Dalgety said.
"Any free-for-all now days you have to go in 98-100 (%) to stand to attention otherwise a supposedly less superior but fitter horse will beat you."
On paper he should defend the race he won last year with ease, but Dalgety is not taking anything for granted.
Christen Me, raced by veteran breeder Charlie Roberts and Vicky Purdon, will have the services of regular driver Dexter Dunn.
Dalgety has two other runners with cup nominations in the race. Duel Breeders Crown winner Bit Of A Legend resumes after his Australian campaign which produced a modest win and three placings from 10 starts.
"He was racing adequate but not to his true talents in Australia," Dalgety said.
No issues were found so Bit Of A Legend was given a decent break and is now showing signs of getting back to his best but it may not come on Friday.
"He's probably not quite super fit yet, he's still a wee bit round at the moment but we can fix that by racing him."
Dalgety knows it's common for two and three year-old stars to take time to mature into open class pacers after being busy in the early part of their careers so he is hoping the 6-year-old son of Bettor's Delight can make his mark on the open class ranks this season.
Mighty Flying Mac will be fresh up since January.
Dalgety knows Friday will be a shock for the 6-year-old son of Mach Three – his first start in free-for-all company – but pointed to his impressive trial effort at Motukarara and said November is still his major target.
"Normally we just see the under-age stars and under-card horses come through to open class ranks but some steady handicap horses do too and I think he's one of them."
Mat Kermeen
Reproduced with permission of Stuff NZ – Check site here