Horse racing: Is the reigning Horse of the Year in trouble? – Mick On Monday

El Vencedor faces vet tests this week before his Herbie Dykes Stakes defence is confirmed. Photo / Kenton Wright

Question marks hang over the immediate future of the reigning Horse of the Year, El Vencedor, after a substandard performance at his favourite track on Saturday.

And that not only threatens to see him miss defending his Herbie Dyke Stakes title at Te Rapa on Saturday – but also the rest of what should be the biggest month of his season.

El Vencedor failed to fire in the last 200m of the Fulton Family Stakes at Ellerslie on Saturday, dropping out to run eighth after looming as the winner at the top of the straight.

He was carrying 62kg but won the same race last year with 61kg before going on to win three Group 1s in 28 days, starting with the Herbie Dyke at Te Rapa.

He looked a long, long way from that form on Saturday and the costly defeat came after another unplaced run, a rarity for him last summer, in the Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.

Trainer Stephen Marsh admits the big boy is not at his best.

“We thought going into the race, he would improve, but very clearly that was not his peak form,” Marsh said.

“Opie [Bosson, jockey] said he felt placid before the race but I thought he still travelled into it like a winner at the top of the straight.”

The performance could just be a second summer blip for El Vencedor but if he is going through a longer form slump, he has picked the worst possible time to do it, with the next month his prime earning window and culminating in the $1 million Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes he won on Champions Day last year.

“We really don’t know what to make of it,” Marsh admitted.

“We will have him totally checked over early in the week and he won’t be going to the Herbie Dyke unless we are 120% happy.

“But we’d love to get him there as the race has fallen away a bit.”

If El Vencedor does defend his title, he will need a new jockey as Bosson is already booked to ride Legarto in the Herbie Dyke.

Her co-trainer Ken Kelso says he wants a new set of hands and a second opinion on how his wonderful mare is going, after she has also failed to race right up to her best so far this season.

“Opie being on her this week gives us that second opinion but that is not to say anybody has done anything wrong on her, we are just trying something different,” Kelso said.

Victorian galloper Kingswood is the $2 favourite for the Herbie Dyke, which will also be minus our spring weight-for-age star Waitak as he waits for the shorter 1600m Ōtaki-Māori Classic at Ellerslie on February 21.

Waitak’s trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott will still have a strong hand on Te Rapa’s mammoth day, with Tomodachi and Grail Seeker both confirmed for the BCD Sprint.

They will clash with the Hayes Brothers stablemates Here To Shock, back to defend the title he won last season, and Railway runner-up Arkansaw Kid.

Railway winner Jigsaw has returned home and will not start in the BCD Sprint but Savaglee is confirmed to make his long-awaited return to the races in the Group 1 over 1400m, his first start since finishing second in the Australian Guineas last March.

“We will also have Yamato Satona in the Waikato Guineas and Ohope Wins in the Ellis Classic,” Andrew Scott said of their Te Rapa team.

The biggest market mover in the key Te Rapa features has been Pier, who is back home from Australia and impressing in his work, so now sits alongside Here To Shock as the $4.50 equal-favourite for the BCD Sprint.

With local hero First Five also in the sprint, fresh off winning the Telegraph at Trentham last month, it is shaping as one of the highlights of the summer racing season.

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.