New Year's Day special
Where: Ellerslie.
When: Saturday, first race 12.20pm.
What: New Zealand's strongest thoroughbred race meeting of the season so far.
Who: NZ's glamour galloping mares, elite stayers, a sensational mile field and the best juveniles.
Can you go? For the first time in six months, yes. Ellerslie reopens to public with hospitality and general admittance.
Trainers usually prefer to have their horses not racing fast horses, but in the case of Levante, it could increase her chances in the $240,000 Sistema Railway at Ellerslie on Saturday.
The first Group 1 in the world for 2022 looks worthy of the honour and a perfect race to draw the crowds back to the home of Auckland racing. The Railway is traditionally New Zealand's greatest sprint and is being touted as a match race of two truly sensational mares in Entriviere and Levante, as both look for their first Group 1 races, even though it has more depth than that.
Trained near each other in Matamata, they have similar records, with Levante having won eight of 12 races and never further back than fifth, while Entriviere has won six of 10, with a fourth her worst placing, that in a A$2 million race in Australia.
They can both unwind stunning closing sectionals and look at their most dynamic when settling off the speed and unwinding, although Entriviere doesn't usually get as far back as Levante.