Classy pacer Report For Duty and emerging squaregaiter Roydon Flash will fly the New Zealand flag when they represent the Butt stable in the pacing and trotting cups respectively.

Anthony, who is looking after the horses while they are stabled at Gavin Lang’s Melton property, said this was the perfect start for the pair who will remain in Victoria until the culmination of the Sky Channel Nights Of Glory on February 7.

“We just thought it was a good plan to have a run this week,” the driver said. “We get to avoid a few of the big guns who are up there (in Sydney) for the Miracle Mile, but these are still premier races. 

“They’re never easy to win, so it will be a good test, and it’s a good time to be here.”

Report For Duty will line up in the $60,000 Decron Cranbourne Pacing Cup at 9.30pm, while Roydon Flash will tackle the $25,000 Group 3 Classic International Floats Cranbourne Trotters Cup at 8.32pm.

The Butts are no strangers to Australian harness racing fans and Cranbourne in particular. They combined to win the 2003 Cranbourne Cup with the ultra-consistent performer Mister D G.

They have also won every major trotting race worth winning thanks to two of the greatest squaregaiters of the modern era, the incomparable Lyell Creek and dual Inter Dominion winner Take A Moment.

Report For Duty, a recent New Zealand Cup placegetter, is well known to Australian harness racing fans having won a heat of the Watpac Inter Dominion at Geelong earlier this year, but Roydon Flash will be making his Australian debut at Cranbourne.

He brings with him awesome form, having finished a fine second to superstar Stig in New Zealand’s premier trotting race, the Dominion Handicap in Christchurch, last Friday night.

The Butt pair didn’t fare too well at the barrier draws – Report For Duty has outside the front row (seven) and Roydon Flash wide on the back row (11) – but Anthony said that was slightly offset by how well they were racing.

“They’ve been racing against the very best ones at home – at the New Zealand Cup meeting – and they both acquitted themselves well in the top races, so I’m sure they’ll be more than competitive,” he said.

The Butts also have established trotter Mountbatten in Australia, but he won’t be having his first start until the $100,000 Australian Trotting Grand Prix at Moonee Valley on December 13.