Max Delight - Bendigo Cup 2024 Photo by Stuart McCormick
POPULAR trainer David Aiken has a million reasons for staying in Victoria longer and taking on champion pacer Leap To Fame in Saturday night's $100,000 Group 2 Cranbourne Cup.
Aiken, who will move to spend most of his time training out of Menangle, decided to postpone the move a few days after his stable star Max Delight ran a slashing third to Leap To Fame in last Saturday night's $500,000 Hunter Cup.
Not that he thinks he can turn the tables, but Max Delight is tantalisingly close to topping $1 million in career earnings.
Even third place to Leap To Fame at Cranbourne would pocket him $10,000 and take him to $1,002,424.
"It was my goal this season to try and get him to the $1 million. He's been such a good horse for so long; he deserves it," Aiken said.
"I thought it might take a while because he's in the twilight of his career, and he still needed another $100,000 or so, but he's picked up plenty in his last three, and we're less than $8000 away now."
"Apart from that hiccup at Shepparton, when he had atrial fibrillation (an irregular heartbeat), he's probably racing as well as ever, and that's huge for an eight-year-old."
"I'd planned to head to Sydney with him Thursday (this week) but saw Cranbourne was on and for big money."
"We didn't really know whether Leap To Fame would go there or not, but regardless, he ran so well in the Hunter Cup, I thought I'd be crazy not to stay a few days longer and see if we could get him past the $1 million at Cranbourne."
"It won't be easy from the draw (gate six), and Leap To Fame's probably going to be too good for them all again, but he'll go around this week, and then we'll head to Sydney on Sunday."
Max Delight has been a star since his juvenile days, most notably running a world record time winning the Group 1 NSW Derby at three, and has gone on to build a career of 104 starts for 26 wins, 13 seconds and 17 thirds.
His biggest win came just over two years ago when Max Delight upstaged former champion pacer King Of Swing to win the 2021 Victoria Cup.
Despite the hiccup at Shepparton, the gelding's three starts this year have banked him $94,250.
"Whether he gets enough this week or not, it'll be a huge thrill when he does top the million," Aiken said.
"He's going so well, he'll get into some good races, so after Cranbourne, we'll head to those $100,000 qualifying races for the Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 2, giving him another crack at it."
Max Delight is an $18 outsider in the Cranbourne Cup in a market dominated by Leap To Fame at $1.20.
More importantly, Max Delight is a $3 to finish in the top three, which would make him a millionaire.
NSW raiders Cya Art (gate five, $9) and Petes Said So (gate three, $12) are other key rivals Max Delight will tussle with to finish top three.
· Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
