Whats Up The Hill, centre, downs race rival Hillbilly, outer, at Auckland last month. PHOTO: Megan Liefting/Race Images.
Go another round with Whats Up The Hill - why he can deliver a KO on Friday night
By Barry Lichter • 14 May 2025
His form line is looking a little bleak but it might pay to stick with Whats Up The Hill ($14, $3.10) at Auckland on Friday night.
The well bred trotter gave punters another upper cut last week, galloping when leading 400 metres out but co-trainer Ray Green revealed he had a legitimate excuse.
“We had to change his sulky on the track just before the start of the race when the hub collapsed on one of the wheels. The replacement was a bit short and he was touching the wheels in the running.”
That saw the three-year-old run too keenly in front and, when the trailing favourite Paramount Lady came off his back and swished round him, Green said he tried to go with her and didn’t have the ringcraft to stay down trotting.
“Apart from that I thought he went super,” Green said. “Taking the hood off him definitely helped and he led easily from seven. He just needs more practice.”
Whats Up The Hill reverts from a mobile start to a stand on Friday night and gets into a considerably easier race, with six of his 10 rivals non-winners. And, while he starts from a 30 metre handicap, he has made some swift beginnings in recent weeks.
Punters will be wary, however, that he has done things right in only three of his eight starts, prone to switching into a pace, a trait obviously inherited from his brilliant dam Escapee.
Green and his training partner Nathan Delany line up only one other runner for Lincoln Farms on Friday night, Lincoln La Moose ($26, $2.20) in the final race.
But while Green says the horse was a certainty beaten at his last start, he’s not holding his breath for a race where the wide rating band has him beaten virtually before he sets foot on the track.
Lincoln La Moose (R52) is forced to line up in a R44 to R67 event and take on Greased Lightning, a last-start fifth in Marketplace’s Northern Derby.
The opposition virtually explodes any confidence Green might have had about Lincoln La Moose’s last run when driver Peter Ferguson was starved for racing room all the way down the home straight at Cambridge. He finished fifth, untried, 1.7 lengths behind winner Power N Glory.
But that was in a R49 to R53 race and didn’t have anything of the calibre of Greased Lightning (R67), Seaclusion (R60) or Runkle Crunch (R58).
And it’s not as if his much better performed rivals could get into any traffic problems with only a five-horse field.
“It once again shows just what a shortage of horses we have in the north,” Green said. “He’ll just have to go round to drop points.”
More news in Harness
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Ray cautions punters with no lead this time for Jekyll and Hyde colt Prince Lincoln
Two (not so) secret weapons help Lincoln Farms to $29,287 payday at Cambridge
Deb dresses her latest ‘Copy’ weanling in white and he delivers a Major coup
Our runners this week: How our trainer rates them
Ray’s comments
Friday night at Cambridge
Race 1: Spirited Belle
4.46pm
Delany: “I saw she’d been punted but somebody must know something we don’t as I’ve been working her myself and, while she feels all right and hasn’t put the boot in like at Auckland, I think she’ll need the run. She hasn’t got any high speed but feels like she will stay. She has improved a bit but I’d be surprised if she won.”
Race 1: Lincoln Maree
4.46pm
“It’s always hard from these draws but she’s a tough mare who will make her own luck at some stage. She’s going well enough - her drivers have all been happy - and she’s a little warrior who tries like hell.”
Race 2: Major Copy
5.12pm
“He’s only two and very inexperienced but he feels like a good colt and there’s a lot of improvement in him. He certainly caught a lot of people’s attention last time. I don’t know how good he is yet but he’ll be right there.”
Race 2: Prince Lincoln
5.12pm
“If he can lead without having to do too much work I can’t see anything beating him. I thought he went great last start. He pressed the winner hard ’til the corner then just flattened out in the run home, but he had every reason to do that after all the work he’d done.”
Race 4: Spirit Of God
6.12pm
“She’s been undone by bad draws. If she led easily from three she’d be hard to beat as she’s a good front-runner.”
Race 4: Spirited Peggy
6.12pm
“We’ve had her for only two weeks but she’s seven now and has had her chance to win one. She has a bit of speed but I think she gets pulling so we’ve got the Hidez (compression) hood on her and plugged her ears up.”
Race 6: Copy N Paste
7.10pm
“We won’t see the best of him for another six months. He’s been a slow developing horse but is improving all the time and getting stronger.”
Race 6: Jessie Lincoln
7.10pm
“If I was having a bet on one of them in the race it would be her. She deserves to win one. Her last two have been really good - she just ran into one who was a bit slicker last time in Major Copy.”
Race 6: Lincoln Dealer
7.10pm
“He’s a bit one-dimensional - you’ve got to feed him track and let him run - so the second row draw is a big handicap. To his credit I was surprised he finished so close last time after all the work he did. When he gets a decent draw and crosses them they’ll know they’re at the races. He’s got a big motor and tries hard.”
Race 8: Rivergirl Bella
8.08pm
“She clawed her way to the front last time but had nothing left at the finish. That won’t happen this time and she should lead easily from one.”
Race 8: Angelic Copy
8.08pm
“She’s had terrible draws but has been going good races. The others last time were just better than her but this is a big drop in class. With the right trip she could get some of it at huge odds.”
Race 9: Sugar Ray Lincoln
8.35pm
“He’s not quick away from a stand but he won’t muff it completely. He steps from the front line and Peter Ferguson was quite happy with his last run.”
Race 9: Lincoln Wave
8.35pm
“He bombed the stand the first time but to be fair all those horses were rushing up at him from the back and that panicked him a bit. He’s on 10 metres this time so that won’t happen.”
