Auckland Guineas: Yaldi wins after Midnight Edition’s interference

Yaldi (outside, green and blue) claims Auckland Guineas as Midnight Edition is relegated in an inquiry. Photo / Kenton Wright (Race Images)

It is not often a trainer wins a Group 2 race with a pang of regret but that was how Andrew Forsman was feeling after taking out the $270,000 Shaws Wire Ropes Auckland Guineas at Ellerslie yesterday.

The 3-year-old gelding actually dead-heated with Midnight Edition on the track but won the race outright in the inquiry room.

It was adjudged that Midnight Edition had rolled out slightly in the last 100m and with there being no margin between the pair at the line any interference was enough to see Midnight Edition relegated.

“I’ll be honest it is not how you like to win a good race like this,” says Forsman.

“I really feel for Bruce [Wallbank, trainer Midnight Edition] but that is the business we are in and when they dead-heat any slight movement can see a relegation so I think it was the only real decision.

“But of course it is the panel who make the decision and we will take the win and it is good to get him back to the winner’s circle.”

Yaldi knows all about throwing away wins, doing it himself at Te Rapa last start when he went stargazing at the 100m mark.

Forsman added the blinkers for today’s 1400m which acts as a perfect trial for his two main summer aims: the $1.5 million NZB Karaka Millions on January 25 and the $3.5m NZB Kiwi on March 8.

Forsman and some stable clients and friends purchased a slot in the Kiwi, the March 8 slot race, and he says Yaldi could fill that slot.

“We haven’t sat down and worked out details yet but he is starting to look like an ideal horse for both those races.

“He can take up a position, he has obviously now won here [Ellerslie] and we think his best trips are 1400m to 1600m, which covers both the Karaka Millions and The Kiwi.

“And he is a gelding, not like a filly or colt so we don’t have to worry so much about trying to snare a Group 1.

“So don’t be surprised if he turns up in the The Kingsmen slot.”

Yaldi was rated a $14 chance for the NZB Kiwi by TAB bookies even after the Guineas win, in which he beat NZB Kiwi favourite Damask Rose.

She was named in the Te Akau slot for the NZB Kiwi yesterday morning and had no luck yesterday but the fact the slot race favourite finished unplaced reiterates the even and unsettled nature of the market for what will be New Zealand’s richest-ever race.

While denied in the inquiry room Midnight Edition won over plenty of new fans with his brave dead-heat performance while Checkmate was good in third.

He had no luck early when stuck three wide and was caught flat-footed when the first two sprinted, racing like a horse dropping back in distance.

He will still be good enough to be a genuine NZB Kiwi chance over 1500m if his trainer decides to stick with that as their aim instead of the NZ Derby on the same day.

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.