New Zealand Trotting Cup – Group l

Copy That proved a point in devastating style when he trounced Self Assured by three and a half lengths in the 2021 cup, confirming just how unlucky he was not to win the previous year.

Copy That started favourite in the 2020 edition but in one of the worst starts to the country’s richest race, which later had horsemen and punters demanding a change to the starting procedure, his race was virtually over before it began.

Horses drawn on the outside got a flyer, eventual winner Self Assured already pacing at speed when the tapes were released, while the five horses drawn the inside were virtually motionless.

Copy That, standing on the inside, was one of the worst affected, his driver Blair Orange adamant his chances were extinguished.

The shambolic start saw Copy That settle at the rear and, after having to make a big run round the field to park, he ran out of petrol in the home straight, finishing eighth.

There were no such hurdles in 2021 when, with stricter rules in force, Copy That made a good getaway and, in a perfectly scripted move, Orange took the front from Classie Brigade with ease.

Trainer Ray Green, watching the race from the barn at Lincoln Farms in Pukekohe because of Auckland’s Covid border restrictions, could hardly believe what an easy trip Copy That was gifted.

And by the time Natalie Rasmussen took South Coast Arden to the death and Purdon slotted Self Assured into the one-one, it was too late as Copy That reeled off a blistering last 800 in 54.4 and 400 in 27.5.

Orange had the race well in control as he cruised to a two and a half length win over Self Assured, who chased in vain, with South Coast Arden third, a neck further back.

Green said with a run like that, Copy That was “virtually unbeatable in this part of the world”.

“It’s hard to acquire horses like him, they don’t come along very often.

“He’s the best I’ve had. We had King of Swing but sold him early in the piece. But this guy’s the whole package.”