Horse racing: Most big names denied Sarten Memorial start set to return for take two

Affirmative Action will return to Ellerslie next Tuesday after missing the postponed Sarten Memorial on Monday. Photo / Kenton Wright

Many of the 3-year-olds who missed their opportunity to start in the abandoned Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa on Monday are set to contest the new version of the Group 2 race, which has been transferred to Tauranga on Saturday.

With one major exception: Sir Colin Meads Trophy winner Affirmative Action.

The plans of many of our best male 3-year-old gallopers, and a few fillies, were thrown into disarray when Te Rapa meeting the Sarten Memorial, which was to be held on Monday, was abandoned after a horse slipped and fell in Race 2.

The Sarten is a crucial lead-up to the 2000 Guineas at Riccarton on November 15 and the majority of those who were in Monday’s field have been renominated for this Saturday’s race.

That includes He Who Dares, Magic Carpet and Quondo, while Landlock, who wasn’t in Monday’s original field, is a new entry for Saturday’s take two.

But trainer Pam Gerard will take a different path with Affirmative Action, who was brilliant in winning at Ellerslie on September 6 but hasn’t raced since.

“We are going to start him in the 1400m 3-year-old race at Ellerslie next Tuesday, instead of the Sarten,” says Gerard.

“That gives him an 11-day gap until the 2000 Guineas, which is more or less what the gap between the Sarten and Guineas used to be in recent years.

“It isn’t ideal for all those Guineas horses not having a left-handed lead-up race before Riccarton [left-handed] now but we will make the best of it.”

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.