Horse racing: Drop back from Group 1 level puts Tomodachi in perfect race

Tomodachi (blue and white) was able to sit handier than usual in this win at Ellerslie last year. Photo / Kenton Wright

Big-race lead-ups in New Zealand don’t come much more elite than Tomodachi’s, heading to Ellerslie tomorrow.

Because the enormously talented mare has started in nothing but Group 1s all season on her road to the $600,000 Al Basti Equiworld Classic back down at Group 2 level tomorrow.

Tomodachi has looked a Group 1 winner-in-waiting her entire career – but that wait continues after three luckless cracks at the highest level this season.

Her only three races this term for Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott have brought her a third in the season’s opening Group 1, the Proisir Plate, then a fourth when hot favourite in the Telegraph and another third in the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa.

The winner of that Proisir Plate was Quintessa, who is back to clash with Tomodachi tomorrow, albeit 2kg worse off at the weights, while in her latest two Group 1s, she has chased home the increasingly-imposing First Five.

Because Group 1 placings don’t incur a handicap in set weights and penalty races, Tomodachi gets into tomorrow’s 1400m event on 56kg, only 1kg more than horses rated 25 points below her.

“It is the perfect race for her,” O’Sullivan said.

“She has the right weight, a good draw with an in-form jockey in Joe Doyle, so she really gets her chance.

“But we are still not sure if we are going to start Lux Libertas because of her wide draw.”

Punters taking the $2.50 now available for Tomodachi after her $3.40 opening price was gobbled up may be concerned by her tendency to get back, but the Sir Peter Vela-owned mare was able to sit three wide on the pace when she last won at Ellerslie 13 months ago.

It is also not a field full of jump-and-run speedsters, so Doyle should be able to keep Tomodachi midfield on the outer at worst and if she races up to her last-start form, she is the mare to beat.

Quintessa is a proven Group 1 horse over this track and distance while the two Chris Waller-trained reps, Mare Of Mt Buller and Chica Mojito, are good mares but their best form has been at the Listed to Group 3 level.

The O’Sullivan/Scott team have good chances right across the card tomorrow but plenty of them are starting against standouts.

Both Panther and L’Aigle Noir could place in the NZB Kiwi without surprising but if either beat Well Written, that would be a shock.

“Both our Derby horses, Yamato Satona and Genki, will run well and stay the 2400m, while I think we will see a better version of Waitak in the Bonecrusher on Saturday,” O’Sullivan said.

“Maybe he got to thinking a bit too much after his big spring wins so we have been popping him over some hurdles to keep him mentally fresh and we have a new rider in Mick Dee, because we think that might also wake him up a bit.

“So he will definitely go better than last start.”

One of the stable’s most interesting runners tomorrow is Te Encuentro (Race 5, No 8) in the Sistema, in which a Group 1 victory for the two-year-old filly by Frankel would make her worth a fortune.

“We think she is a good filly and outside of Lara Antipova, she is definitely up to beating the rest of them and we wouldn’t be surprised if she won.”

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.