Horse racing: Orchestral off tune at Ellerslie

Checkmate winning at Ellerslie on Sunday. Photo / Supplied

Disappointed but not worried.

That was the honest opinion of co-trainer Roger James after superstar mare Orchestral finished last of four in her comeback race at Ellerslie yesterday, just 13 days out from one of the biggest races of her season.

Last season’s NZ Derby winner was caught flat footed in a farcically slow open 1400m yesterday but to the eye she hardly looked one of the best horses in the country, which she most definitely is.

Settling last as the two pairs got along at crawling speed, Orchestral hit her usual flat patch on the home bend before looming up on the inside at the 200m but her trio of rivals simply had too much leg speed.

The reason was a last 600m in just over 33 seconds at the back end of the 1400m in 1:25.6, about three seconds outside standard for horses of that grade on a good summer track.

Times aside it still didn’t suggest Orchestral deserves to be the $2.50 favourite for the $1million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic on Karaka Millions night, January 25.

James, who trains the four-year-old with Robert Wellwood, wasn’t trying to sugarcoat the last placing.

“Yes, I was disappointed,” he admitted.

“But I am not worried. This was a starting point and it was 1400m run so, so slow. And she had 60kg so maybe it was race she was never going to win.

“The key was the tempo. They went so slow she just got outsprinted but Craig [Grylls, jockey] said the best part of her race was at the line and after it.

“So we are not worried. We have two weeks to get her right for the mile.

“This race will really bring her on and I think we can have her sharp enough for that.”

Orchestral has now not run a placing in four starts this season after being our elite three-year-old filly last season.

Nobody doubts her talent and she wouldn’t be the first four-year-old mare to have a fruitless campaign or even two after a great three-year-old season. But her run yesterday will give the trainers of her rivals in the Aotearoa Classic hope.

Yesterday’s meeting provided plenty of pointers to the two huge meetings on the Ellerslie horizon, the Karaka Millions and Champions Day on March 8.

One of the biggest was in the juvenile race where To Bravery Born bolted in and is now the $4 equal favourite for the Karaka Millions.

There was plenty to like from a handful of three-year-olds on display yesterday with Sought After and Checkmate both winning for the O’Sullivan/Scott stable but now headed in different directions.

Sought After was the first horse to gain a slot in the $3.5m NZB Kiwi on March 8 and that is his only real aim left as he is now Karaka Millions eligible.

Either is stablemate Checkmate, who downed an impressive Hinekaha in the three-year-old 1500m yesterday but has now changed path from the NZB Kiwi to the NZ Derby on the same day.

“Orginally we thought he was an NZB Kiwi horse but he is looking for more ground so he will go on a Derby path now, probably through the Waikato Guineas,” said O’Sullivan.

Hinekaha was still eyecatching in second coming from last and her trainer Andrew Forsman went one better in the next Derby lead-up yesterday, the Gingernuts Salver with Mustang Morgan.

The maiden appreciated the step up to 2100m and just downed Golden Century suggesting Forsman, one of the kings of Derbys over the past decade, will again have a real hand to play in this year’s classic.

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.