Horse racing: Derby hopes dashed for Dealt With, Zormella steps in for NZB Kiwi

Dealt With. Photo / Kenton Wright Race Images

Cambridge trainers Roger James and Robert Wellwood started and ended Monday with the same number of horses in the major races at Champions Day but there was plenty of stress in between.

The pair have one of the elite teams heading to our richest ever race day with Oceana Dream the big mover in the $1.25-million Trackside NZ Derby and Orchestral peaking for the $1-million Bonecrusher NZ Stakes.

But they have had to pull their exciting 3-year-old Dealt With out of the $3.5million NZB Kiwi with a puzzling problem.

“He is sore, we think across the top of his back, but we haven’t been able to pinpoint it to be honest,” James told the Herald.

“We think it is soft tissue-based but he will go to the vet clinic and get the best care he can to get to the bottom of it.”

The withdrawal of Dealt With left the Kerri Spence Bloodstock/Clotworthy Racing slot vacant just one day out from the NZB Kiwi barrier draw.

That meant lots of phone calls and conversations before Zormella, also trained by James and Wellwood, got the slot.

“It made for a really intense few hours because getting Dealt With the best care and providing his owners with as much information as possible was our first priority. We were gutted for them but also to lose the horse from the race,” says Wellwood.

“But we also needed to be very aware of informing the slot holders who then had to start looking for a replacement.”

The slot holders could have chosen to negotiate for any eligible horses on either side of the Tasman but their list would have been shortened because of travel ruling out some while their replacement horse had to be fit, ready for a hot 1500m this Saturday and with sufficient class.

Zormella, who won her maiden in style at Pukekohe for James and Wellwood, ticked those boxes and Spence and the Clotworthys chose her even though their prior dealings with the stable would have had little or no bearing.

“We had people interested in her for other slots and we know she is a high-class filly so we are thrilled to get her into the race,” says Wellwood.

“Sure, we would have loved to have them both there but that can’t happen now and we have an obligation to do the best by the filly, her owners and the slot holders.

“So we are disappointed for some really good owners with Dealt With but thankful that we will have a classy filly with her shot at what is a very special race.”

Zormella entered the market last night as a $41 chance with George Rooke to ride 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.