“But there is a lot of rain expected tonight so we will come back first thing in the morning to ensure there is no surface water and it is safe.”
If the meeting has to be postponed it would have to be rescheduled for Monday or Tuesday because there are already two thoroughbred meetings on Sunday.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing officials would prefer to hold a postponed meeting rather than abandon it, not just because of the lost revenue for the industry and participants but because of the black type races.
While plenty of those in today’s $100,000 Campbell Infrastructure Rotorua Cup are just getting warmed up for some winter wars, many of the mares in the Rotorua ITM Stakes are using today’s meeting as their last shot at black type for the season and will want today’s meeting over and done with.
One of those is Marotiri Molly, whose trainer Matt Dixon said this is her last major goal of a superb season.
“We have targeted this race and I don’t want her ploughing around in the mud through winter,” says Dixon.
“I think it is an ideal race for her. She needed her run last start and has come in much better off in the weights against a horse like Tomodachi, who she conceded 6kg to last time.
“She handles heavy tracks okay so that doesn’t worry me. But if it gets really heavy down on the inside later in the day, I am a bit concerned about her ace draw.
“Initially, it sounded good but it won’t be if the track gets cut up on the inside.
“One thing that might help her is she has natural speed early so she might be able to get in front of plenty of them and dictate what line she takes around the home turn.”
The race becomes harder to work out with every hour of rain but the best-backed mare yesterday was Lux Libertas, who was $7.50 into $6 after the track was downgraded to heavy, a surface she is unbeaten on in four starts.
Trentham race on a heavy 10 today, while Ascot Park tomorrow will also be in that range. The only track not starting the weekend rated heavy is Whanganui, where the jumps racing season kicks off on Sunday.
Tomorrow’s meeting will host two hurdle races and one steeplechase, with the jumps racing community buoyed by the three-year lifeline it has been given after a NZTR review.
There have been good numbers of newcomers trialling over jumps and at least three or four overseas jockeys are expected to come to New Zealand for the winter to ride, helping ease the critical shortage of jumps jockeys.
The good news for the struggling discipline continued yesterday when the Canterbury Jockey Club announced the stake for this year’s Grand National Steeplechase will rise to $200,000, double last year’s stake when West Coast won the race for the third straight season.
West Coast starts his path towards securing a fourth Grand National title when he contests a maiden flat race at Whanganui tomorrow.
West Coast back, heavy 10 tracks and jumps racing. Yes, winter is here.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
