Chris Alford aboard Down Under Muscles
The boom has been lowered somewhat, but Chris Alford is maintaining the faith with untapped trotter Down Under Muscles.
Two months ago the Muscles Yankee entire was being hailed by some the next big thing in Australian trotting, but after a couple of unplaced efforts the predictions, for this season as least, aren’t as grandiose as they once were.
But trainer/driver Alford warned punters against discounting his stable star in Saturday night’s $150,000 Group 1 Australasian Trotting Championship Final (2760m) at Melton’s Tabcorp Park.
He was satisfied with last week’s heat fourth placing at Ballarat, his first start since failing to beat a runner home in the Australian Trotting Grand Prix on December 18, and hinted he was ready to return to the form that carried him to a hat-trick of feature wins earlier this season.
“He was pretty flat by the time the Grand Prix came up and he ran accordingly,” Alford said. “He had nearly three weeks off after that and, first-up the other night, I thought he did a good job.
“He ran really well until about 50 (metres) out then just ran out of gas, so he’ll be a lot better this week.”
The half-brother to former superstar A Touch Of Flair – runner-up to One Over Kenny in the most recent ATC, in 2007 – was beaten 12m by Kiwi gun I Can Doosit in his heat after starting from the outside of the front row.
But he has a much more favourable standing start position this week, drawn best of the three big guns. A winner of seven of his nine standing start attempts, Down Under Muscles will spring from gate three with I Can Doosit in four and Let Me Thru five.
It sets up an enthralling affair according to Alford, who vowed at Tuesday’s barrier draw to drive the winner of 16 of his 31 starts more aggressively early in the final.
“I wasn’t really fussed about getting him away from the outside (last week) because all I wanted to do was settle and run home,” he said. “But I hope he can ping away quick and I can get to the fence and sit behind I Can Doosit or Let Me Thru, that would be perfect.
“It’s going to be interesting to the first turn and I’m sure it’s going to be a great race.”
Down Under Muscles is TAB Sportsbet’s $6.50 third favourite for the event that is the first of three Group 1s on the Tabcorp Park card, to be run at 8:03pm. I Can Doosit heads betting at $1.90 with Let Me Thru ($3) the only other runner under $16.
