Records under threat with fireworks predicted in Friday night’s Grins at Cambridge

With the likelihood of early fireworks, trainer Ray Green knows Copy That might have to run record time to win Friday night’s The Race By Grins.

And he says the little champ is up for it.

Two days out from the second running of Cambridge’s $1 million slot race, Green is concentrating on putting the finishing polish on the little champ.

But speculation is mounting on just what time could be posted for the mobile 2200 metres with at least one rival camp signalling they won’t die wondering.

Green isn’t flustered at co-trainer Steve Telfer’s declaration that he’ll be asking driver Tim Williams to get B D Joe off the gate as hard as he can from five.

With Zachary Butcher certain to also spear Old Town Road out from two, Copy That looks like copping pressure from both sides.

“What do they think we’ll be doing in the meantime?” says Green, confirming what everyone already knows that Copy That will also be gunning for the top.

Green says his biggest pre-race fear was that a less experienced driver might get overawed by the occasion and undo Copy That with a reckless and prolonged challenge.

But seeing a top line-up of reinsmen, as well as horses, had reassured him that the Grins would be a great race.

“It’s not often you get to run for this amount of money and we have all the right ingredients for it to be a successful race, which we want for harness racing.

“I can’t fault my horse’s general condition. He’s looking great, if anything a little too pretty.

“Andrew (Drake) drove him yesterday and was happy with him. He’s racing well and is in with a great chance but the one that frightens me most is Self Assured, he’s a tremendously good horse.”

Given all the action in last week’s Waikato Flying Mile, when Self Assured clocked 1:52, just four tenths of a second outside the track record jointly held by Adore Me and South Coast Arden, it’s a fair bet the Cambridge 2200 metre record will be broken on Friday.

It stands at only 2:37.4, set by southern mare Folklore in a mediocre rating 54 to 63 race in January last year. That time represents a mile rate of just 1:55.1.

Ultimate Sniper, pictured winning the 2019 Interdominion Grand Final, set a national mark for 2200 metres in the first heat. PHOTO: Peter Rubery.The New Zealand record for 2200 metres is two seconds faster, Ultimate Sniper having clocked 2:35.4 in winning a heat of the 2019 Interdominions at Auckland.

The five previous national 2200 metre marks were also set at Alexandra Park, and you have to go all the way back to 1974 to find a Cambridge national mark for the trip, a comparatively pedestrian 2:49.3 set by the flashy chestnut Captain Harcourt.

The fastest closing sectionals at Cambridge also look under threat, Perfect Seelster having run 26.5 for a last 400 and the spectacular Christian Cullen 54.47 for a closing 800.

Green recalls clearly Cullen’s two wins at Cambridge in February, 1999, when he ran closing splits of 54.5 in winning both the Cambridge Four-Year-Old Classic and Waikato Times Flying Mile.

It was reported at the time the horse ran the fastest 200 metres in the world in the Classic when he crossed from six on the gate and, by the time he hit the winning post the first time, he was leading on the fence.

“I was looking after Cullen at the time,” Green said. “When Brian (O’Meara) went home I jogged him at Kumeu.

“Copy That is actually quite similar in his demeanour to Cullen, both easy to do and both squealy colts who let you know they’re there.”

Telling stats

You only have to look at the stats to see why Copy That has a huge chance of boosting his bankroll to more than $2 million on Friday night.

If you exclude his first five starts, when he was still learning to be a racehorse, his record over 2200 metres stands at 16 wins and seven placings from 24 starts.

The only time he has not paid a dividend at the trip was last October when he was pipped a head for third in the Victoria Cup behind Rock N Roll Doo, Honolua Bay and Better Eclipse.

Copy That started from the inside of the second row that night and, buried three deep, was held up for a run, driver Nathan Jack reporting he was unlucky not to finish second. The closing splits on a 1:54 mile rate were 54.4 and 26.8.

In the last 22 months, Copy That has raced 14 times in New Zealand and has never finished further back than third.

In five starts at Cambridge, Copy That has recorded three wins and a second (last week), his most memorable performance when setting a New Zealand record for a standing start 2700 metres from a 70 metre handicap.

His only failure at the track was as a four-year-old in the 2021 Jewels when he was saddled with a killer outside second row draw and never got into race despite clocking a 1:52.6 mile.

Of Copy That’s 32 wins (from 62 starts), 23 have been from behind the mobile barrier.