Veteran trainer David Aiken, who is fighting prostate cancer, and his pacing warhorse, Max Delight, who overcame a career threatening injury, will be the sentimental favourites and a genuine winning chance in the $500,000 Inter Dominion pacing final.
Aiken was the “King of Harold Park” in his prime, has trained over 2500 winners, 33 at Group 1 level, including the 2015 Perth Inter Dominion pacing final with the great Lennytheshark.
It’s almost two-and-half years since 65-year-old Aiken was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery. It wasn’t the success he hoped and just days before this Inter Dominion series started, he finished 35 days of radiation on “a couple of hot spots.”
“That finished three weeks ago and they’ve put me on hormone therapy, too. After the surgery, my PSA levels should have been zero, but they were still going up,” he said. “It took them a couple of years to pinpoint the problem areas and now it’s a waiting game for some blood tests in January to see if the levels are zero, as they need to be.”
Aiken admits his “best mate” Max Delight has been the ultimate therapy through such a confronting time.
“He’s been my crutch at times, for sure,” he said. “He’s not just good for me, but everyone around me, too. He could be the last good horse I have at this stage of my career.
“He turns nine next month and he’s been a fantastic horse since he was two. He was Australian 3YO of the year and that’s five years ago, but this renaissance of his couldn’t have come at a better time for me.”
Max Delight, who sold for a then Australian record $245,000 as a yearling, hit a serious hurdle himself after finishing third in the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire as a four-year-old in February, 2020.
“He tore a tendon and that can be the end for some horses and even most who do make it back are never the same, but not this guy,” Aiken said.
“He had about a year out and we manage that leg every day, using all the old-school things I’ve learned along the way, and he just keeps delivering. I honestly don’t think we’ve ever had him better.”
Max Delight will line-up for his 128th start – and his 100th since that nasty injury – on Saturday night. He’s won 31 races, been placed in another 39 and banked a whopping $1,176,424.
The emotional connection runs deeper through his owner, Tasmania’s Mick Maxfield, who Aiken revealed is having serious health issues of his own.
“He’s not well, but he’s going to be trackside on Saturday night. He admits it’ll probably be the last time he gets to the track to see the horse race,” he said.
“When you roll everything in, it’s just so satisfying to see this old horse doing what he’s doing, as much for him after what he’s been through as it for Mick or myself.
“He’s not without a chance, either. Nothing has really gone right through the heats, but he’s run well each time.
“He’s drawn to get a good trail from the back row and if they go hard early and it’s truly run, then he’ll get the sort of run he loves, that stalking run, and be dangerous late.
“But just being in the final again, with everything that’s going on, is really something else.”
This is Max Delight’s third Inter Dominion series. He ran fourth in the 2021 final at Menangle and failed to qualify for the Melton final the following year.
– By Adam Hamilton, Harness Racing Victoria.
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