Case of wait and see
HE’S DONE his part and now it’s a case of wait and see.
Contesting a Trot Rods heat in Redcliffe last night, Adam Crocker covered the 947-metre dash in 63.8 seconds.
In doing so the son of Somebeachsomewhere became the fastest series winner for trainer Chantal Turpin and owner Gary Crocker.
Adam Crocker’s time slashed 1.3 seconds from the previous best set by Got Chooks last week.
Along with the prizemoney, Adam Crocker earned a $1000 bonus for breaking Got Chooks’ mark.
With the remaining heats scheduled to be run on Wednesday, Adam Crocker’s connections will watch the races with bated breath – and for good reason!
The fastest winner will collect an additional $10,000 for owners and a two-horse angled float valued at $21,000 for the trainer.
“He won’t be going around again in the next heats,” Crocker said. “So we’ll just have to wait and see how it all unfolds on the night.
“I’ve had this series in mind for him for a while and now he has done his job by getting the quickest time on the board.”
Crocker’s decision to miss the next round is partly due to the strange decision by Racing Queensland to limit the drivers to the five the governing body has selected.
For example, Grant Dixon trains and drives another of last night’s heats winner – Mister Cole – but cannot partner the son of Hurrikane Kingcole next week.
Instead one of the five will be selected for Mister Cole should he compete.
In fact, only two of last night’s 10 heats runners were driven by one of the five chosen reinsman – Adam Crocker was driven by Pete McMullen, while Shane Graham took the reins behind Luchavinfun, which finished second behind Adam Crocker.
It’s been a similar scenario throughout the series, with an average of two of the 10 starters on each night driven by the five!
“For some reason they have elected to restrict the drivers to five they have chosen and not the horse’s regular drivers,” Crocker said.
“There is still a chance Pete could drive my horse if the marbles fell that way, but there is no guarantee they will.
“It’ll take a good run to better his time from last night, so we’ll just rest on his laurels and hope for the best.”