Afterglo was one of two winners for Opie Bosson on Saturday to take him to the top of the premiership. Photo / Kenton Wright
The majority of horses who were set to contest the $80,000 Matamata Cup that was abandoned on Saturday will still get their chance to start in the rescheduled race.
The black-type 1600m race was canned along with two other races at Matamata when a storm during the meeting left the track waterlogged.
That raised safety issues over visibility for the jockeys on what was already a Heavy 10, with the hoof marks from earlier races filling with water after the torrential downpour.
While losing one of its best-known races of the season is a blow to the Matamata club, that may be lessened a touch by being able to hold it at the already scheduled meeting on Wednesay week, October 15.
Not only does Matamata already have a meeting that day but being so close to the original date, it means most of those who were in Saturday’s field will have the option to accept again.
That wasn’t the case last year when the Team Wealleans Matamata Cup had to be moved from its October date to make way for the transferred Arrowfield Stakes and the Cup was moved to December.
“That was an option again but the racing calendar is very congested at that time of the season,” New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing handicapper Bruce Sherwin said.
“The Wednesday date next week works well for the same pool of horses and it shouldn’t affect any of the major races that following weekend, being a different pool from the horses who will start in the Livamol at Ellerslie three days later.”
The race will obviously have a new field though, drawn from new entries.
While Matamata only held five races on Saturday, that was enough for champion jockey Opie Bosson to ride a double and find himself in an unusual position atop the national premiership.
Bosson won on Diamond Jak and Afterglo to take him to 18 wins for the season, one clear of the injured Michael McNab.
That sees Bosson as the $4.50 third-favourite to win the title, after starting the season rated a $61 premiership chance.
The three abandoned Matamata races weren’t the only blow to thoroughbred turnover on the weekend as the Timaru meeting was postponed until this Thursday also because of surface water.
Proisir Plate winner Quintessa will trial at Awapuni today as she prepares for the Livamol at Ellerslie on October 18.
The dual Group 1-winning mare was to have started in the Howden Insurance Mile nine days ago but was scratched because of the heavy track and co-trainer Sam Bergerson considered Saturday’s Matamata Cup but decided against it, which ultimately proved a wise decision.
Quintessa travelled from Matamata to Awapuni on Sunday and while it was initially indicated she would only be heading there for a trip away and a track gallop, she will actually start in a open catchweight 1400m at noon today.
Quintessa remains an $8 equal-fourth-favourite for the Livamol which for all the recent rain and disruption in the north looks set to contain most of the available proven Group 1 players touted as chances.
The connections of millionaire pacer Akuta decided to dodge the Methven mud.
The $1.50 favourite was a late scratching from Sunday’s Alabar Methven Cup after overnight rain saw the track come up heavy.
Heavy tracks are a rarity for open-class pacers, with yesterday’s race one of the few times each season any of the pacing stars are asked to start on a grass track.
“We weren’t keen on starting him on a heavy track for a few reasons,” co-trainer Mark Purdon said.
“So he is likely to head to Addington to race this Friday instead and then again a week later in the Canterbbury Classic.”
The two Australian megastars set to come to Addington to take on Akuta and the locals, Leap To Fame and Swazyee, had differing fortunes in Australia on Saturday night.
Leap To Fame was his normal machine-like self winning at Albion Park but two-time New Zealand Cup winner Swayzee was surprisingly beaten by Kingman at Menangle.
Leap To Fame and Swayzee are supposed to meet in the Victoria Cup at Melton on October 18 before coming to Addington but punters shouldn’t treat either as a certain New Zealand Cup starter until their hooves touch New Zealand soil.
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.