Withdrawn: Grand National winner Captain’s
Run was scratched on Saturday.
Trainer-jockey Shaun Fannin is adamant favourite Jesko will handle the extreme 6200m distance of today’s first running of the Great New Zealand Steeplechase.
The race, formerly known as the Great Northern, is the longest held here and after Jesko was beaten in the 5600m Grand National two starts ago, there will be some punters who question whether the extra 600m today aids his chances.
Fannin, who trains Jesko and race rival Fourty Eight with his wife Hazel, has no concerns over the trip.
“He gives me the feeling he will stay all day,” Fannin told the Herald.
“I think he had a few things against him in the National.
“He had a less than ideal build-up week and the track was very heavy then he got taken on in the running. So to hang on for second was a good effort.”
Fannin says the improving track at Te Aroha today, which could even get into the Soft 7 range if there isn’t rain, will also help Jesko.
“The better track will suit him because he has good leg speed and also because he has got up in the weights so quickly.
“He has 70kg now and I’d rather he carries that on a better track than a bog.”
Jesko’s cause has also been aided by the scratching of his Grand National conqueror Captain’s Run.
“He more or less sprained a fetlock by shying at something in track work,” says his trainer Dan O’Leary.
“He should know better at his age but he has always done it and always will.”
That leaves O’Leary with 2021 Great Northern winner Te Kahu as his sole rep in today’s ultimate staying test and he says the veteran has something going for him others don’t.
“A lot of horses can run 4000m but that is it, plenty don’t want to run 6200m,” says O’Leary.
“We know our horse can do it because he has before so he has to have some sort of chance.”
If the track continues to improve, Nedwin will give trainers Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal a wonderful chance of completing the Great New Zealand double after they claimed the GNZ Hurdle on Friday with Taika.
Nedwin may have won 12 races on really heavy tracks, including the Pakuranga Hunt Cup at Te Aroha in a bog last start, but he has been very proficient on soft-range tracks in the past year.
He won the season-opening steeplechase at Te Rapa on a Soft 6 in May and did likewise in the Great Northern Hurdle two years ago on a Soft 5.
“If the track keeps drying out a bit it won’t bother him,” says Nelson, who has had to miss the first Great New Zealand carnival after undergoing a knee operation.
“He has retained some of his flat ability and he obviously won the Pakuranga Hunt last start here so we give him a good chance.”
Leitrim Lad, Run Jaccko Run and Fannin’s second-stringer Fourty Eight add depth to the first running of the Great New Zealand, but Jesko still looks the class act, while Nedwin appeals as the best each-way bet.
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.
