Horse racing: Pennyweka firms in Oaks market

Ryan Elliot had Pennyweka well clear in the Oaks yesterday. Photo / Race Images

Veteran trainer Jim Wallace is taking an optimistic approach to throwing his filly Pennyweka into what could be the most testing race of the classic season this Saturday.

“If it gets heavy and hard work, I think it will bother most of them more than it will bother us,” says Wallace.

The 76-year-old New Zealand horseman is back in Sydney for his NZ Oaks winner, a surprise and late nomination for the A$1 million ATC Oaks at Randwick on Saturday.

So impressive was Pennyweka winning the Oaks at Trentham, she has slotted into Saturday’s market as the second favourite, boosted by top jockey Damian Lane taking the ride.

Randwick was testing after raceday rain last Saturday, with the ATC Derby one of the slowest on record, and there has been heavy rain in Sydney since, so it is hard to see how the track will get back to good for Saturday.

That raises the possibility of the Oaks being a brutal test of stamina and Wallace says his girl won’t shirk that.

“We know how good a stayer she is and a hard race on a wet track won’t bother her as much as it will most of the others.

“She is already over here and settled in fine, so I couldn’t be happier. I am looking forward to Saturday, it has been a while since I had a horse at this level over here.”

If the Sydney rains continues to fall, Pennyweka has the wet weather form to keep shortening in the market, her maiden win coming on a heavy10, while it was a soft7 when she won the Oaks.

The Trentham race was also run at a brutal tempo, the first 1200m nearly six seconds faster than the last 1200m, so the harder, the better for Pennyweka.

A soft track also wouldn’t bother the other New Zealand rep in the Oaks in Polygon, who was running on well for seventh behind Prowess in the Vinery on March 25.

The Oaks pair will be joined by two other Kiwi glamour girls chasing Aussie riches on Saturday, with Levante the favourite for the A$1m Queen Of The Turf, while Ethereal Star will make her Australian debut in the Percy Sykes for 2-year-old fillies.

“She is over here and she has some wet track form when she won a stakes race at Pukekohe,” says Ethereal Star’s trainer Andrew Forsman.

“So we know she will handle some sort of wet track, but whether the Randwick wet track is anything like she raced on, we will find out.”

Forsman is also making the bold move of sending Mustang Valley back to New Zealand to potentially race in the Group 1 Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes at Pukekohe this Saturday just a week after her fifth in the Doncaster.

“She is already home and has travelled well, and at this stage, she will go to Pukekohe,” says Forsman.

“It is a Group 1, she is fit and good to go and the track could be wet, which wouldn’t bother her.”

Mustang Valley could be the only Group 1 winner in the NZ Breeders, the last Group 1 of the New Zealand season, as most of our elite fillies and mares are in the spelling paddock or in Sydney.

On the same plane back from Sydney was last season’s NZ Derby winner Asterix, who didn’t handle the Randwick wet last Saturday in the Chairman’s Handicap and finished a long way back from the winners, so has been allowed to miss this Saturday’s Sydney Cup.