Horse racing: James-Wellwood stable chasing Queensland winter glory

Sweynesday won a dramatic Haunui Farm King's Plate at Ellerslie last month. Photo / Kenton Wright

A two-horse assault on the Queensland winter carnival for one of New Zealand’s in-form stables could grow to three after Te Rapa this Saturday.

Trainer Roger James and Robert Wellwood are sending one of our best sprinters in Sweynesday to Australia next week to chase a spot in the iconic A$3 million Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm on June 13.

He will be joined in Queensland by last-start Trelawney Championship winner Solid Gold as she aims at the Queensland Oaks but a third member of the stable could book a surprise ticket by winning at Te Rapa this Saturday.

Excite was fourth in the Group 1 Manawatū Sires’ Produce Stakes at Trentham last start and looks a value bet at $6 in Saturday’s $80,000 Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre Stakes, the black-type 1400m feature on Saturday.

“We think he is a pretty smart horse and should be hard to beat this week,” James said.

“And if he wins, who knows?

“He is handling the racing so well we might even consider adding him to the team for a race like the JJ Atkins at the carnival over there.”

The JJ Atkins is the A$1m 1600m race run on Stradbroke day that has been one of the few Australian Group 1 2-year-old races New Zealand-trained horses have been able to win.

Sacred Elixir won it for fellow Cambridge trainer Tony Pike in 2016 while Darci Brahma triumphed for Te Akau back in 2005.

Excite would need to win on Saturday to be booking his tickets to Queensland but Sweynesday is confirmed and flies to Sydney next Monday to make his Australian debut in the A$250,000 Takeover Target at Gosford in New South Wales on Saturday week.

“At this stage we think he has enough stake money to get into the Stradbroke but we’d like to make sure and the Takeover Target looks a great next step for him,” James said.

“We have booked Andrew Adkins to ride him.”

Sweynesday may have been lucky to win the Haunui Farms Kings Plate at Ellerslie last start after leader Alabama Lass crashed into the running rail when looking the winner, but his earlier summer form was superb.

He was the first Kiwi home behind Jigsaw and Arkansaw Kid in the Railway at Ellerslie on Karaka Millions night and James has been happy to see that form embellished by Jigsaw subsequently winning two huge sprints back home in Australia.

“We think he [Sweynesday] is the right horse to take across,” James said.

“I have great respect for the Australian sprinters but this horse is still getting better and if things go well he could sneak into the Stradbroke on a very light weight.

“So he will go to the Takeover Target and then almost certainly another lead-up run up in Brisbane.”


While Sweynesday is rated a $26 chance in a Stradbroke market that has a lot of maturing to do, Solid Gold sits on the third line of betting for the Queensland Oaks, an $8 chance alongside fellow Cambridge filly Single Red.

“She has really come into her own and will have three weeks between runs before going to the Rough Habit [Doomben, May 16].”

While Queensland will be a focus for James and Wellwood in the next six weeks they also have horses still coming up in their new campaigns at a stage of the season when they would usually be powering the stable down.

“With Ellerslie racing until the middle of June we have the confidence to bring some horses back know they can get at least a couple of races on a track which won’t be worse than a Soft 5 or 6, which is a real difference from the past.”

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.