Force Of Nature (closest to camera) has a good record at Te Rapa. Photo / Kenton Wright
Andrew Forsman will know a lot more about where his summer stable sits by tomorrow night.
But if current form and past performances count for anything, he could be heading in the right direction at Te Rapa tomorrow.
The Cambridge trainer takes two in-form horses, both by Savabeel, to Te Rapa in Hinekaha and Force Of Nature. While he knows they have proper battles on their hands, they are horses on the rise.
Hinekaha (R5, No 5) looked high class when she burst on the scene last season, but like so many of her age, lacked the brute strength needed to hang on until Derby or Oaks time.
Given a long spell, she has developed and has more maturity to come. She has still won her last two well enough to earn a crack at the Cal Isuzu Stakes tomorrow.
“Obviously, she isn’t perfectly suited by the weight-for-age scale just yet, but it is a good black-type race, so it is worth a crack,” says Forsman.
“She is still strengthening up and, when she fully matures, I am confident she will be right up to this grade, although maybe with 2000m as her best distance.
“But it is only a small field and she can race well.”
Being on the same weight as proven Group 1 performers Qali Al Farrasha and Jaarffi does put Hinekaha at a disadvantage, but she has some X-factor and a top-three finish, or better, wouldn’t surprise.
Forsman will have both Force Of Nature and Kitty Flash in the $120,000 J Swap Sprint, which again is stacked full of black-type winners.
“Force Of Nature was really good winning last start and he likes Te Rapa,” says Forsman.
“I am not sure how many runs he would like on really good ground, so how he goes tomorrow could decide whether we ease up on him and bring him back later when there is more give in the tracks.
“Kitty Flash will probably still start, even though the barrier draw really won’t help her. Had she drawn well and could have maybe controlled the speed, she would have been a good chance.”
That race promises to be one of the highlights of the day, with enormous depth and a former Waikato Guineas winner in Tuxedo returning to Te Rapa along with one of the stars of last season’s 3-year-old crop in Checkmate, an NZB Kiwi placegetter.
His stablemate Smart Love is also now into the field off the ballot, having won her last four straight.
The signature race of the day, the Skycity Hamilton Waikato Cup, sees the now common open handicap problem of a topweight in Sharp N Smart carrying 59kg and the vast majority of the field with only 53kg.
One of those who was supposed to be on that 53kg is Forsman’s mare Moonlight Magic, although she might actually carry 54kg, as stewards have granted Matt Cartwright permission to ride her 1kg overweight if necessary.
A former Queensland Derby runner-up, Moonlight Magic is nearing the end of her career as she is in foal, but her trainer thinks she can go close with the right run.
“She ended up in front last start, which wasn’t anybody’s fault, but just didn’t suit her. But she is ready to go a good race and there isn’t a lot between many of these handicapping stayers at the moment.”
There isn’t a lot of winning form between the 16 starters either, and clearly the best form in the race belongs to the topweight, back on the track where he won the Herbie Dyke and NZ Derby nearly three years ago.
Forsman also has a nice opinion of debutante juvenile Zippidy (R2, No 7), a sister to his former juvenile Group 1 winner Lickety Split.
“It is not easy coming into these races on debut, and she isn’t as advanced as her sister was at the same stage, but we do like her.”
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.