Hope ready to watch from the stand as trotters strut their stuff
Matt Markham - Raceform • February 12th, 2026 11:29 AM • 4 min read
Ben Hope is taking a different approach to preparing for a feature trotting event than he usually would this week.
Never too far away from having a decent steer in any Group or Listed race for the trotters, the young horseman will this week watch the Gr.3 Lamb & Hayward Trotters Classic from the stand, despite having two runners that he trains in partnership with his father Greg at Woodend Beach. It’s all in the name of continuity.
Ben obviously has a strong association with stable star Muscle Mountain, and while he’s not there for Friday’s $40,000 event, Ben could have jumped on either Mr Love or Midnight Dash and no one would have batted an eyelid. But Blair Orange will continue his association with Mr Love and Gemma Thornley the same with Midnight Dash.
“It’ll be a little bit different watching from the stand, especially seeing as I’m usually out there driving Muscle Mountain against them,” Ben told RaceForm this week.
“It’s a consistency thing. Mr Love isn’t the easiest horse in the world sometimes, and he has a few quirks that can take a bit of getting used to. With a Group One race just around the corner, the decision was made to keep Blair on in order to give us the best chance going into the race in a couple of weeks.
“And Gemma has done nothing wrong on Midnight Dash either, so it just makes sense to keep those combinations together.”
Mr Love returns to the track having not been seen since winning at Invercargill, where he beat Muscle Mountain, prior to Christmas. He is being aimed at both the Fred Shaw New Zealand Trotting Championships in two weeks and then trying to go one better than his second in the Rowe Cup 12 months ago, and Hope says he’s right on track.
“We’ve kept the work up to him since he last raced and he’s going into this week pretty ready. I guess what I would say is the big target is in a couple of weeks and whatever he does this week he will improve on, but we are certainly still there to win.”
Among national trotting ranks that appear at the mercy of the Australians at the moment, New Zealand needs the up-and-coming trotters like Mr Love to really step up this year. If he can do that through this campaign, there’s no doubt he’ll be one of our leading lights by the end of 2026, if he’s not there already.
With the greatest of respect, that’s not the likely destination for Midnight Dash at this stage of his career. But his role is just as important and there’s still plenty of life left in his legs yet.
The now nine-year-old will have his 114th start on Friday night in a career that has seen 15 wins and 38 minor placings as well as top-five finishes in almost every major trotting race in the land.
“He was pretty good last time out, but we felt he might have been a bit short and he really seems to have thrived off that run, so we’d like to think he’ll be a strong each-way chance again with his usual manners.”
The pair will be joined in a fortnight for the Gr.1 Fred Shaw by Muscle Mountain, who has been ticking over at home really well since his victory at Addington a fortnight ago.
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