Hood comes off Whats Up The Hill giving him an upset chance at $16 tonight at Auckland
By Barry Lichter • 10 May 2025
A crucial gear change could be just what erratic trotter Whats Up The Hill needs to upset at Auckland on Saturday night.
Co-trainer Ray Green is expecting a much better performance in the final race from the well bred three-year-old who broke on the first bend then switched into a pace for the fourth time in seven starts last week and finished 85 lengths down the track.
“We’ve taken the hood off him, it was shutting him down too much and making him too blase.”
Trialled at Pukekohe without the hood the day after his last race, Whats Up The Hill trotted perfectly, driver Zachary Butcher reported.
“It fired him up a bit and he left the mobile like a monster,” Green said. “He started from the outside of the gate and Zac reckoned he could have led easily.”
Whats Up The Hill contested the workout solely to get his ticket from behind the mobile arm so he could race in tonight’s Metro Trotters’ Heat.
Whats Up The Hill, centre, does everything right to score at Auckland two starts back. PHOTO: Megan Liefting/Race Images.And, against pacers, he cruised up to the leader, his four-win stablemate Lincoln La Moose, before being eased out of the heat.
“When he trots, he trots well,” Green said. “He’s a lovely horse and he’s only young. He just needs to go out there and poke round some more to get experience.”
Green knows it’s hard to tip a horse whose record, while limited, is littered with errors.
“But he’s always a chance. He’d be one of the main chances tonight if he did things right.”
Whats Up The Hill, raced by Lone Star’s Trevor Casey, his parther Kate Marriott and Lincoln Farms owners John and Lynne Street, is unwanted in the fixed odds betting at $16 and $3.40.
But he showed plenty of promise in his previous start at Auckland when he outfinished the well regarded Hillbilly, a $4.50 rival tonight.
Butcher has his second racenight drive on the horse tonight.
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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.”
