Savaglee is almost ready to return to the trials but where he races this summer is undecided. Photo / Kenton Wright
SUMMER SIZZLE
Ellerslie’s highlight meetings
Dec 11: Twilight meeting, huge after-party.
Dec 26: Boxing Day meeting, three black type races and two series finals headlined by $500,000 Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic.
Jan 1: New Year’s Day, four black type races.
Jan 11: Sunday pre-Karaka Millions meeting, one black type race.
Jan 24: TAB Karaka Millions, five black type races including Sistema Railway and Karaka Millions for two and three-year-olds plus $1m Aoteoroa Classic.
Feb 21: NZ Oaks meeting, five black type races including Oaks, Ōtaki Māori Classic, Avondale Cup and Avondale Guineas.
March 7: Champions Day, seven black type races including NZB Kiwi, Trackside NZ Derby, Bonecrusher Stakes, Auckland Cup and Dubai Equiworld Classic (fillies and mares).
The market for New Zealand’s richest four-year-old race has been thrown into disarray as the two favourites are almost certain not to be there.
And there are also doubts over the plans for a couple of key contenders for the NZB Kiwi as trainers start to consider their options for a stacked summer schedule at Ellerslie.
While horses being set for major races often drop out through loss of form or other factors, it is a lot rarer for horses not being set for a big dance to opt in.
That is the case, as this stage at least, for the two TAB futures favourites for the $1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic at Ellerslie on January 24.
The TAB market has last season’s Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old and NZB Kiwi winner Damask Rose as the $5 favourite but co-trainer Mark Walker says the mare definitely isn’t returning home for the Aotearoa Classic.
“She is staying over here [Australia] and looking to race at Caulfield on January 31,” says Walker, who runs Te Akau’s Cranbourne stable as well as being senior overall trainer for the transtasman business.
“She didn’t have a lot of luck here in the spring but the aim is still to get her black type over here so she will start racing again on January 31 and hopefully work her way back up to the best races as her campaign goes on.”
While Damask Rose looks certain not to be in the Ellerslie four-year-old feature any punters who backed her are protected as bets on horses not nominated for the Aotearoa Classic are refunded because it doesn’t have early nominations.
Many major races do have entries taken weeks or even months before they are run but all the features on Karaka Millions night only have nominations taken four days before, standard practice for a normal Saturday meeting.
With Damask Rose seemingly not be returning to Ellerslie, favouritism for the Aotearoa Classic would fall to Savaglee but he is not being aimed at the race either.
The current $7 second favourite is back in work at Matamata with trainer Pam Gerard and could be seen publicly in a trial for black type performers at his home track on December 19.
“He is coming along well and has plenty of options but at this stage the four-year-old race isn’t really being considered,” Gerard told the Herald.
“I don’t see how we can get a race into him to have him ready for 1600m by then.
“We think the Telegraph [Trentham, Jan 3] will come around too soon and in the Railway, which is his other option on Karaka Millions night, he could get too much weight.
“So his main target here will be the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa [Feb 7] and then looking at options in Australia, where he would be more likely to step back up to 1600m.”
If punters mentally scratch those two from the Aotearoa Classic then it looks decidedly more open, with Wexford stablemates Smart Love and Checkmate next in the market.
But Auckland Thoroughbred Racing’s Craig Baker confirms there is Australian interest in the race which, unlike the Karaka Millions races, is open to non-sales horses.
“Once it becomes more apparent that a horse like Savaglee may not be there then I think we could get even more Australian interest for such a huge stake,” Baker says.
Gerard admits she and her owners also have some thinking to do with her NZ 2000 Guineas quinellamates Romanoff and Affirmative Action.
Both are among the favourites for the $1.5m Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old, which has Well Written as a $1.90 favourite but her participation is uncertain.
There has been no shortage of buyers sniffing around Affirmative Action but no concrete offers at this stage so he is being aimed at the Auckland Guineas at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.
That promises to be an emotional race as it is now named in honour of Jimmy Schick, the 10-year-old son of Windsor Park owners Rodney and Gina Schick, who died in an all-terrain vehicle accident in May.
“Affirmative Action is likely to head there and then the Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old but Romanoff [2000 Guineas winner] will probably go to the Levin Classic at Trentham and then the Karaka Millions.”
But Gerard is less certain about a NZB Kiwi campaign for Romanoff as his Guineas win at Riccarton means he will cop a 3kg penalty under the set weights and penalties conditions so therefore has to carry 60kgs.
“It sounds like the Canterbury Jockey Club are keen to have him in their Kiwi slot because he won the Guineas but 60kg is a big weight so we have a bit to think about there.”
One horse that is definitely back in New Zealand and has, at this stage, the Karaka Millions and NZB Kiwi on her radar is last season’s champion juvenile La Dorada.
“She is back in New Zealand and will start at Te Rapa on Saturday week and could definitely go to those two big races all going well,” says co-trainer Walker.
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.