V75®: Mahony expects a great effort by Millmighty again
He has been mighty impressive lately with four wins in his last five starts.
Paw Mahony has ensured his horse Millmighty perfectly fits the V75® Bronze division on his earnings.
"If he just gets a good hold of the track, he will perform on top of his ability. He is not easy to pass when he is in the lead. And he is no fun having on the outside either" says Paw Mahony.
Örebro Racetrack is hosting the V75® races this Saturday and in the first leg, Paw Mahony starts his strong slugger Millmighty. The horse has four wins in six starts this year and all four times he has won by open lengths. He was extremely impressive back in the summer when he won on the Hugo Åbergs night at Jägersro by ‘half the stretch’. After a long trip to the Norwegian track Orkla two starts ago where he finished second, he returned to the winner's circle in his last start at Färjestad. Trainer Mahony's horse fits the class perfectly, as the Bronze division is closed at SEK 900,000, and Millmighty's lifetime earnings are SEK 899,270. He will have to overcome post position four in volt start, but that does not seem to bother the Årjäng licensed trainer much.
"4 Millmighty (V75-1) did not draw the best post position, but there are horses who handle post four much worse than he does. He always behaves well and I think he will figure this out too" says Paw Mahoney in the podcast 'V75 – lördag hela veckan'.
There was a reason for the long trip to Norway two starts ago.
"I couldn't find any races for him within 300 kilometers, so I expanded my search area to 800 kilometers. That’s when I found a race at Orkla that looked good for him. The owners are from Norway so they were happy to see him race there, understandably".
"He raced just as well as he always does, he lost mostly because the track was very deep. He never got an hold of the track and the material was way too coarse for Mighty. He was hitting the bike throughout the entire race but still raced well, I just didn't feel that same joy in him. But he still trotted 4/10 faster than the track record after a first over trip, so that was OK" says Paw and adds:
"It took us ten hours to get there and twelve to get home, so it was a really long trip".
"The guy who called the race was shocked"
Paw Mahoney also says that his horse can handle training and racing continuously now but at the same time he does not want to race him too often and he tries to give him some time in between starts. It will be two weeks from his last start to this one, just as it was before the start at Jägersro back in July when Millmighty was magnificent.
"I watched the replay of that race the next day and the guy who called the race was shocked that the leader still had some go left in him" says Mahony and laughs, as one of the hosts of the podcast, Peter Andersson was the race caller.
"I had said before the race that I would set an even 1:14 pace and then it's impossible to gain anything at the end when the leader trots at 1:12 speed the last 500 meters. When he can set his own pace in the lead, he is very efficient, he showed that at Färjestad last time out. He can handle a speed early and still have some left at the end".
"He is not easy to pass when he is in the lead. And he is no fun having on the outside either" says Paw Mahony.
Expects a great performance – "A ten"
The host of the podcast Per Skoglund asks Mahony what type of effort he expects this week on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 equals the effort from Jägersro.
"If everything is good, and I mostly mean the track surface, the only thing I worry about is that he won't be able to grab the track the way he needs to, but if does, then he should be a 10 on that scale. Then he will perform on top of his ability".
"He had only trained on the uphill track before the start at Färjestad and he will do so again before this start on Saturday. He will train on Tuesday and then we will go out and play around a bit on Friday, just nice and slow. After that, I think he will be pretty good on Saturday"
Any changes on him?`
"He raced barefoot all around at Jägersro but then he didn't find his gait until after a kilometer and I was not pleased with him. That's why I raced him with steel shoes at Orkla, but then he couldn't grab the track, so I changed to aluminum shoes for his last start at Färjestad. So Millmighty will race with aluminums behind instead of steel shoes" says Paw Mahony in the podcast 'V75 – lördag hela veckan'.