by Jonny Turner
With sprinting trips behind her and her airways clear, the real Destiny Jones can stand up in the third round of Interdominion heats on Friday night.
The Canterbury trotter gets conditions to suit after battling back to full health to produce two sound fifth placings in the first two heats of the Alexandra Park series.
Destiny Jones was lucky to even be in both of those races after pollen in the spring air was responsible for the mare’s failures in both the trotting features at the New Zealand Cup Carnival.
It was not until after her Dominion run that vets handed trainer Dean Hunter the explanation for why her his mare’s form dropped off so badly after her excellent runs for second in the Ashburton Trotters Flying Mile and the South Bay Trotters Cup.
“I wasn’t even sure if we were going to make it up to the Interdominions, the way she was after the Dominion,” Hunter said.
“But, we managed to treat her and get a clear hear lungs and get a vet clearance the Wednesday before the first night.”
“I was still unsure how she was going to go on the first night, but she hit the line good and came through the run super.”
“On the second night we got a bad draw over 1700m and we didn’t have much show bar going back and crunching home and she did that.”
Being able to put his horse’s illness behind him with two sound Interdominion runs is not the only reason Hunter can look forward to night three with some confidence.
The step up to 2700m and drawing barrier 1 gives the trainer even more reason to smile.
“It will be a big help to her stepping up in distance,” Hunter said.
“She has got the draw and hopefully she can capitalise on it.”
“She should have enough speed to hold early and then we have got the choice of who we might hand up to.”
Destiny Jones does not just go in to the second of Friday night’s trotting heats after thriving during the series.
Her recent illness is practically a distant memory since arriving at the Stonewall Stud stables of Steve Telfer.
“She has actually thrived since she has been up here.”
“She is really bright and Steve and I am really pleased with her.”
If Destiny Jones can bounce back to the form she showed before she suffered allergy problems she would almost certainly run a top five placing again and qualify for the Interdominion trotting final.
She just needs a little bit more luck than she had at Ashburton when carted backwards before running home strongly behind Marcoola.
“I think if she wasn’t held up — she wouldn’t have beaten the winner — but she would have got a lot closer to him.”
“And her run at Kaikoura was great too, she did a little bit more work than Habibi Inta and he was able to run past her.”
“But, she went a very good race.”
Destiny Jones faces no easy task to win on Friday night.
She faces the white hot Majestic Man, All Stars trotter Winterfell and fellow staying specialist Massive Metro in her heat.
It looks a tough ask for the mare to crack a top three placing, but the TAB’s promotion of paying out on the first four placings on fixed odds place bets in the Interdominion heats boosts punters chances of getting paid exponentially.
Destiny Jones has been rated at $5 in the fixed odds place market for Friday night’s race.