Isaac's Great hope

FAIRFAX

AT THE TREBLE: Star jumper Hypnotize and rider Isaac Lupton, pictured winning the Great Northern Steeples in 2008, will attempt their third win in the great race at Ellerslie tomorrow.

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Isaac Lupton is expecting more of the same from Hypnotize as he attempts his third Great Northern Steeples win at Ellerslie tomorrow.

The Waverley jumps rider first rode the Raymond Connors-trained Hypnotize when the Yamanin Vital gelding won his first Pakuranga Hunt Cup in 2007.

Since then the horse and rider have gone on to win the Hunt Cup twice more and twice taken out the Great Northern Steeples.

But in that time Lupton has noticed that nothing ever changes.

''Year after year he just turns up and goes exactly the same,'' Lupton said.

''That's the thing about him. All his Hunt Cup runs, if you went through the videos of them you'd give him no chance of winning at the top of the hill and then he picks them up as we go over the last jump.

''Last year, I don't know whether it was the better tracks - he had two slow tracks for the Hunt Cup and the Northern and he might have been flattened in the Wellington Hurdles when he had a tough run in it - but other than that his runs have all been the same.''

Lupton has Hypnotize on a pedestal as the best jumper he has ridden and he hopes to raise the bar even higher tomorrow with the 11-year-old ready to set a modern day race weight carrying record of 70.5kg.

''He's been a good horse to me and to have been associated with him right through has been great,'' Lupton said.

''He goes so well at Ellerslie and all the big stake money is up there so he's been quite good for me financially as well.

''To win the Northern three times on him would be pretty special. It's been a privilege to have ridden this horse and if he was to do it....

''It takes a special horse to win the Northern Steeples. You need a real stayer. If he gets beaten, I don't think it will be the weight that beats him.

''He carried 70kg the other day and my focus will be just trying to get him to jump fluently.''

Hypnotize has won 12 of his 37 starts and seven of his 11 steeplechases, culminating in his third Pakuranga Hunt Cup victory a fortnight ago at Ellerslie.

''That was great,'' Lupton said.

''To carry the weight and become the first horse to win that race three times was fantastic and the crowd gave him a great reception.

''He probably travels a little bit better in the Northern because it's a slightly slower tempo than the Pakuranga Hunt Cup but I was surprised how handy he travelled the other day.

''He usually struggling out the back but he travelled well. But I'll just ride him where he's happy. Hopefully he jumps fluently and he should go well.''

Hypnotize would join Cambridge steeplechaser Hunterville [1983-85] as the only three time winner of the Great Northern Steeples if he was to win tomorrow and Lupton said that would stamp him up with the best jumpers of his generation.

''Rand was pretty good and Real Tonic what he did in winning the Great Eastern, Grand Annual, the Pakuranga Hunt Cup and Great Northern in one winter will probably never be done again,'' Lupton said.

''But to win three Northerns would be pretty special. Hunterville won three in a row. [Hypnotize] won't do that but if he did win three I'd probably be pushing Raymond to have another go next year and go for four. He seems to be carrying the weight all right and he's only had 30 or 40 starts.

''I watched the video of Karasi winning his third Nakayama Grand Jump a few weeks ago and he was a 12-year-old. [Hypnotize] is only 11.

''If the tracks do come up heavy next winter and you had the horse sitting at home in the paddock, you might be wondering if you should have had another go.''

Lupton will attempt to land the first leg of a possible Great Northern double when he combines with last-start Grand National Steeples winner Counter Punch in the Great Northern Hurdles.

The jumps jockey couldn't see any reason why the Mark Oulaghan-trained 10-year-old can't make a successful transition back to hurdling.

''It shouldn't be too much of an issue. The steeplechase fences at Riccarton are more like hurdles these days and it suits the hurdlers down there,'' Lupton said.

''His last hurdle race was in the Wellington Hurdles the year before last when he won  with 67kg. He'd got to the top of the hurdle handicaps and that's when they switched him to 'chasing.

''He's got up there in the steeplechase handicaps so he's gone back to hurdling now. He's a class horse so he's always going to be a chance. He's going to have to carry topweight and there's some promising jumpers in there but he's a pretty good jumper and if it's a bit of a slog that will help him too.''

Unbeaten in four starts as a steeplechaser, Counter Punch has won six of his 13 hurdle starts, winning the Awapuni Hurdles and Grand National Hurdles in 2007 before finishing third to Just Not Cricket and Pasco in the Great Northern Hurdles that year.

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