By MIKE DILLON
Trainer Wayne Herbert is not worried about attempting the near-impossible with Tit For Taat in Tuesday's $350,000 Mercedes Derby at Ellerslie, and neither is Tit For Taat.
Herbert admits he has ignited the jungle drums by trying to win the gruelling 2400m Derby without having raced Tit For Taat beyond 1600m.
Only one horse in the past 20 years, Our Flight in 1982, has taken the Derby without the benefit of lead-up middle-distance experience.
Worse, Tit For Taat is bred almost exclusively to be a sprinter.
Herbert might have secret fears, but Tit For Taat is totally relaxed. In fact, it is almost as if the dual group-one winner has switched into another mode to help his connections.
"It's freaky," says regular rider Hayden Tinsley.
"All his work since the Bayer Classic win has been right-handed to get him used to the Ellerslie way around and he's become a completely different horse.
"It seems that if you want to get him to race as a sprinter and get him going fiercely then send him round left-handed and if you want him to settle and stay, then work him right-handed.
"He is so beautifully relaxed working right-handed."
On Tuesday morning Herbert arranged a special four-horse, right-handed workout on the Feilding racecourse to replace Sunday's Derby Trial, which he rejected because it meant either two trips to Auckland in 10 days for Tit For Taat, or leaving him in the north and risking unsettling him.
"We don't have any markers or restrictions here at Feilding so I was able to arrange three other horses to set a pace for Tit For Taat and let him run at them late.
"They ran about 2100m and he finished over the top of them. It was terrific work."
Tinsley rode Tit For Taat and was impressed - "he's a very fit horse."
Herbert took Tit For Taat to Awapuni on Saturday and let him cruise around between races.
Herbert is not worried that horses do not win the treble of the 2000 Guineas, Bayer Classic and New Zealand Derby, and Tinsley believes breeding does not matter.
"Plenty of horses race against their breeding. People said this horse wouldn't go 1600m and he proved them wrong. He can prove them wrong again."
Tinsley's only prayer is for a good barrier draw when the field is drawn this afternoon.
"If he gets a good barrier I can put him to sleep somewhere behind them."
If that does not happen, Tinsley will not object to having to lead.
"I'm not one to restrain horses. If they want to pull I generally let them run.
"He doesn't have to lead, but it won't worry me if he does."
Herbert likes things simple and would love just to get Tit For Taat to the Derby start without too much fuss.
"You know, if this was Europe, what we're doing with this horse would be considered the norm, but for some reason because we're doing it here, we've thrown everyone into a tailspin."
Australian Nash Rawiller will ride Corrupted in the Derby.
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