Leading reinsman Anthony Butt has for the second year in a row picked up a late driving engagement in the $100,000 PETstock Ballarat Pacing Cup on Saturday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ballarat trainer Emma Stewart has booked the Australian-based champion New Zealand reinsman to drive Major Secret.
Butt was set to drive Moonrock, but trainer Sonya Smith chose to bypass Ballarat and instead run at Melton on Friday night.
Butt secured a catch drive on the Mark Purdon-trained Smolda last year and went on to salute ahead of boom stablemate Lazarus.
He has become a specialist in the group 1 event. After a few attempts on Mister DG, Butt broke through on Stunin Cullen – trained by his brother Tim – in 2011 and followed up with stablemate Mah Sish two years later.
The Ballarat Cup was Butt’s first drive on Smolda.
Butt has driven Major Secret once, when unplaced in the 2015 4yo and 5yo Championship at Melton.
As an outsider Major Secret will have to cause a major upset if her is to give Stewart her third Ballarat Pacing Cup victory and Butt his fourth.
Champion horsewoman Natalie Rasmussen is also returning for a drive in the Cup.
She will take charge of Heaven Rocks, originally to be driven by Brett Mangos, which she trains in partnership with Mark Purdon in NZ.
Rasmussen is best known as the trainer-driver of legendary Queensland pacer Blacks A Fake, which she took to four Inter-Dominion titles.
Ironically, the Ballarat Cup was one race which eluded Blacks A Fake – beaten into second by Emma Stewart’s Safari in 2008.
The Mark Purdon-trained and driven Vincent is set to start favourite.
Heaven Rocks opened up as a $2 favourite shortly after the field was finalised on Tuesday, with Vincent on the second line of betting at $2.60.
Vincent has come in for substantial support to be odds-on, with Heaven Rocks a drifter at $3.
The Emma Stewart-trained Shadow Sax remains a firm third elect at $4.50 on the back of seven straight wins and a last-start win in the group 1 $100,000 South Australian Cup.
Lennytheshark is the only other runner in the nine-horse field considered a serious contender at $12.