Covid restrictions will see numbers severely limited at Addington on Tuesday but the first horse punters will see on their racebooks will be Sugar Apple.
Copy Who? Sugar Apple to make unusual farewell on harness racing’s biggest day
By Barry Lichter • 5 November 2021
It’s the ultimate pub quiz stumper.
What horse was on the front cover of the racebook for IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup day 2021?
Last year’s winner Self Assured?
Wrong.
Triple cup hero Terror To Love?
Wrong.
On a day when Lincoln Farms’ classy Copy That will start one of the favourites for the $600,000 feature at Addingon, one of its lesser performed horses gets the surprise pin-up treatment.
Enter, the racy looking, but only one-win two-year-old, Sugar Apple.
And the juvenile’s rare moment in the spotlight comes just a few days after he left Lincoln Farms and the country, sold to New South Wales interests.
Sugar Apple showing off at Cambridge on Jewels day.The Sweet Lou colt might have won just one of his six starts here, but he always made his presence known, and Auckland photographer Trish Dunell’s shot obviously took the fancy of the racebook designers.
A half brother to Lincoln Farms’ former classy three-year-old American Dealer, he has not raced since winning his last start for trainer Ray Green at Cambridge in August.
It was there just a few months earlier, on Harness Jewels day, that he turned on a display in front of the grandstand, rearing repeatedly before the score-up then blazing to the front to lead the fastest horses in the country in the Two-Year-Old Emerald.
“He’s a zippy little guy and they’ll love him over there,” Green said.
“He’ll win them in a row for a starter as they have so many more options for horses like him. He has gate speed, a big engine and a bit of lick. He’s just not that strong yet. He’s a similar type to Larry Lincoln, who was a sit-sprinter rather than one for big overland trips.”
Sugar Apple was raced here by American Dealer’s owners Gordon Banks and Marc Hanover, John and Lynne Street, Trevor Casey, Matt Hooper, Grant Dickey, Ian Kedzlie, the Chissos and Wack Syndicate and the Green Machine Racing Syndicate.
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Our runners this week: How our trainer rates them
Ray’s comments
Friday night at Auckland
Race 3: Jessie Lincoln
5.44pm
“She normally runs on better but, after looking like she was going to round them up on the turn last week, she just flattened out. But she’ll be hovering around there somewhere.”
Race 5: Lincoln Maree
6.55pm
“She’s such a tough little filly who tries so hard. I wish I had one with speed with those qualities. It would be nice if they go hard, and she gets a suck along, then she might get a small piece of it. She never goes a bad race.”
Race 5: Angelic Copy
6.55pm
“She’s been going all right but she keeps getting awkward draws and getting pushed back to the rear. Because of her initial success (as a two-year-old) she’s been badly off in the ratings but she’s slowly losing points.”
Race 5: Prince Lincoln
6.55pm
“He’s a serious winning chance. He’ll go forward from his outside gate and try to dominate again in front. He’s not just winning, he’s demolishing them.”
Race 9: Sugar Ray Lincoln
8.45pm
“He got fired up at Cambridge with the long delay and, after he went forward to get a position, Fergie was just a passenger. When they pull that hard they don’t run on. He’s been racing well and can’t be ruled out if he gets a good trip.”
Race 9: Lincoln Wave
8.45pm
”If he gets a half decent trip, he’s the one to beat. Ignore the Cambridge run last week from a stand. We know what he can do from the mobile.”
