Racing: Strong starters for Japan Trophy

The Bayleys International Raceday, featuring the Group 2 Windsor Park Stud Japan Trophy and the annual Travelcom Fashions In The Field, takes place at the Tauranga Racecourse on Saturday.

The meeting has attracted an outstanding field with some of New Zealand's best horses looking to perform just before next week's major Easter meeting at Ellerslie.

There will be notable interest in whether local horse Maximum Height can continue a remarkable run of five straight wins .

The 6-year-old from Katikati, trained by Antony Fuller, won just his second race from 41 starts back in October but since then has been unstoppable.

Racing Tauranga's Sponsorship and Marketing Manager Don Paterson said the quality and numbers of horses lining up in the four feature races was good this year. "In the Pacific Owens Plate there is a great horse in there called Neo, which is a Murry Baker/Andrew Forsman horse, which is well worth looking at, and also Casino Park," said Paterson. "But there are so many good horses in that race.

"Looking at the MCL Stuccorite Bay Of Plenty Cup again there is a great field with five horses rating over 90, including last year's winner Arcenciel, and in the Japan Trophy there are so many possibilities.

"Fleur de Lune, Diademe, Postmans Daughter are all group one racehorses, and Pero that ran in the Wellington Cup and Auckland Cup.

"Usually at the time of the year it is hard to get a lot of quality sprinters but we have a huge number in the Morton Estate Sparkling Sprint, including the likes of Double Barrel, The Hombre, Innovation and Gaston and Alvesta. It is just a fantastic field."

Paterson expected a bumper crowd would turn out with the weather report looking good for the day.

"We haven't had a race meeting in Tauranga since January so it is an opportunity to get dressed up as well. It is like our Melbourne Cup.

"We also have the first Birdscage Bash for many years which is a chance for young people to dress up. If we can get young people coming back to the races then we will creating a future for the industry."

The nine-race event starts at 12.30pm, with gates open early at 9.30am.