David Aiken will be hoping Spidergirl can live up to the hype tomorrow.
It may be the year of the superhero with both The Amazing Spiderman 3D and The Batman movie ‘ The Dark Knight Rises’ set to break new ground at the box office in July however in harness racing circles there may be a different kind of superhero hitting the front page in the next few months.
Two-year-old trotting filly Spidergirl will be making her race day debut tomorrow in a heat of the Empire Stallions Vicbred Super Series at Tabcorp Park Melton and the boom on her are enormous coming off a hat-trick of trial wins which have been out of this world.
Her trainer David Aiken is generally a relaxed sort of character but heading into this non-descript Thursday afternoon meeting at Tabcorp Park he is starting to raise a sweat.
“I said to Kevin Riseley (owner) yesterday, I don’t want to get too excited because I know what horses are like, but her trials have been sensational,” he said.
There are countless stories of horses that can win or even dominate in trials or track work but struggle with the pressures of race day but from what we have seen, Spidergirl has all the attributes of an ‘ice-cool’ trotter.
With obvious talent there will always be obstacles to overcome and the Avenel horseman has found that his filly can be hard to manage at times.
“She gets a little keen, likes to run her own speed, but she’s as good a two-year-old as I think I’ve seen this year. She’s pretty exciting,” Aiken said.
The hype surrounding the filly has been built on her three trials in which the official margins have been 50 metres in her first trial, 50 metres in her second trial and in her most recent effort she effectively broke the mechanism to time and place horses with anecdotal evidence suggesting she won by over 100 metres.
In that demolition, the daughter of Yankee Spider put paid to Roy Hobbs who has proven a classy trotter with a placing in the Group 2 Petstock Tatlow Stakes Final.
Come Thursday it won’t matter who or what she has beaten in trials because the real test will be laid out in front of her with promising trotters Dutchess Ella and Ainsdale there to beat after more than encouraging lead-up runs.
The final will be run on July 6, just over two weeks away and the race could prove a launching pad for the young fillies.
Aiken has engaged top reinsman Chris Alford to jump in the bike and he had one last warning to offer to his rivals and punters alike as his promising filly readies herself for her debut.
“I’ll wait until Thursday. I just hope everything goes right because she’s got a bit of a boom on her. I don’t really get nervous at the races but I will be on Thursday – she’s just that kind of horse.”
