Ruakaka is set to be the surprise winner in the battle to host New Zealand's first glamour race of the new thoroughbred season with a star-studded line-up heading north this Saturday.
The new racing season for the galloping code starts today and usually the first serious flat race would be the $100,000 Winter Cup at Riccarton, which will still draw a quality winter field of milers this week.
But the biggest names racing this week will be heading to a mere $35,000 open sprint at Ruakaka as their trainers look for the closest thing resembling a good winter surface.
That could see group one heroines Entriviere and Imperatriz clash with Karaka Million-winning stablemate On The Bubbles and former age group star Dragon Leap in a very rare super sprint for the first Saturday of the season.
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Advertise with NZME.Trainer Mark Walker was originally going to trial his outstanding mares Imperatriz and Entriviere twice before aiming them at the Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa on August 27 but decided Imperatriz didn't need another trial after she cruised at an effortless win at the recent Cambridge synthetic trials.
So she booked her ticket to Ruakaka early but she will now be joined by Railway winner Entriviere even though the handicap conditions guarantee she will cop a decent weight for this Saturday.
"She (Entriviere) didn't seem to like the synthetic when she trialled at Cambridge so I was going to take her to the Te Rapa trials this week to give her a hitout on the grass but she might as well go to Ruakaka," says Walker.
"That way she gets a trip away and a race in good company on what should be an okay surface.
"With that under her belt if she starts in the Foxbridge on a wet track later in the month it is less likely to knock her with a race under her belt than it would going in fresh.
"Yes, she will get some weight this week but we always have the option of claiming with her."
On The Bubbles will also head to the 1100m sprint while co-trainer Andrew Scott confirmed to the Herald the Ruakaka race is the target for former Auckland and Avondale Guineas winner Dragon Leap.
That will make the race one of the hottest ever fields assembled in New Zealand for a first Saturday of the season and one of the strongest races run at Ruakaka in years.
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Advertise with NZME.Walker says weather and form will be key determinants of which Te Akau horses head to Australia later this spring with Imperatriz getting some extra incentive last week.
As winner of the NZ Breeders Stakes in April if she wins the Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington she would win a A$1million bonus, one of five bonuses announced this week by Racing Victoria for winners of their biggest races have also won key designated races beforehand.
One horse who won't be returning to Ruakaka this Saturday, or anywhere else in the immediate future, is talented youngster Turn The Ace who was scratched from the three-year-old race at Te Rapa on Saturday.
He has a chip in a knee which will require surgery and is unlikely to race again until next year.
