Horse racing: Carrying weight of world

West Coast will have a mammoth 72kg on his back in the $50,000 Koral Steeples.

Plenty of people might worry about a few extra kilogrammes at the end of winter but at Riccarton tomorrow that could be the difference between winning and losing.

The two biggest stars of Winter Cup day face carrying enormous weights, with Justaskme to lump 61kg in the Cup while earlier steeplechasing giant West Coast will have a mammoth 72kg on his back in the $50,000 Koral Steeples.

West Coast’s task is tricky to evaluate because on one hand he has to carry his extraordinary weight over 4250m while jumping, but countering that he has only seven rivals and looks vastly superior to them.

He carried 71kg to beat better opposition, including The Cossack, in the Wellington Steeples last start and Riccarton suits him better.

“He is a big strong horse and a good jumper and I think those sort of horses like rolling around Riccarton,” says trainer Mark Oulaghan.

“I know it looks like a lot of weight but he carried more or less that weight against better horses last start so I think he can win again.

“He travelled down well, too, his ferry was the last one to get across before they stopped sailing for the day so he is all good to go.”

Oulaghan also has one of the favourites in the Sydenham Hurdles in Berry The Cash, who looked set to win the Wellington Hurdles before falling at the top of the straight.

“The heavier the better for him, he is an old-school wet tracker.” While West Coast has a heavier weight than Justaskme will carry in the Winter Cup, the latter looks worse off.

He is 8kg above the minimum (as opposed to West Coast being 6kg above the minimum) but will also have 17 rivals, hardly ideal for a horse who gets back early. Justaskme was stunning, a word rarely used to describe racing’s winter warriors, when coming from last at New Plymouth last start and only goes up 1kg in the weights for tomorrow’s Group 3 over 1600m.

But while he stormed past 12 rivals last start, tomorrow sees 18 starters and for back runners each rival increase their chances of traffic issues by a percentage point or two. Justaskme may be so talented he can overcome that and jockey Jonathan Riddell helps, not only because he is a crafty big-race rider but also because he won’t have to carry too much dead weight under the saddle to get up to the 61kg.

“I don’t think the weight is too bad, he has earned it,” says trainer Allan Sharrock.

“The way he won last start, had he carried 1kg more then I think he still would have won.”

All that is true but the Winter Cup contains plenty of potholes on the way to the winner’s circle for Justaskme, headed by strong representations from trainers such as Kevin Myers and Lisa Latta who have outstanding big-race records at Riccarton.