What would change the track conditions more would be rain on the day, which is forecast, but how much of it will actually turn up is impossible to know.
Before he comes north, Patterson has a strong team in at Trentham today, including last-start Couplands Mile winner Puntura stepping up to weight-for-age in the $150,000 Manawatu Challenge Stakes.
“I don’t see why he can’t be competitive again because he is a big horse who will handle it and I hope they go along a bit so he can get across and get a spot as the field breaks open.”
Patterson, one of New Zealand’s leading strike rate trainers, rates Sinbin (R8, No 7) and The Hottie (R5, No 6) his best two chances today in that order.
Oaks winner retired
Two-time Oaks winner Pennyweka has been retired to stud.
The Opaki mare only had 12 starts for breeder and trainer Jim Wallace but won both the NZ Oaks and then the ATC Oaks in Sydney in a magical three weeks in March-April.
Those performances suggested she was a Cups horse but after failing to show her best this spring, she was diagnosed as having an entrapped epiglottis that required surgery.
“She didn’t really improve much after the op and we had the option of another operation or returning her but really she has nothing left to prove,” Wallace told the Herald.
“So we are happy to let her be a broodmare but we still haven’t worked out whether we will breed from her or sell her.”
Pennyweka was raced by the Galloping Wekas Jazweka Syndicate and Wallace loved seeing smaller-time owners, breeders and trainers starring on the transtasman stage, especially at a time when his family was dealing with the loss of loved ones.
“Racing needs stories like this to keep the smaller players going.”
Ellerslie relaunch bonuses
Ellerslie’s two huge comeback meetings next month keep getting better.
The track reopens after nearly two years on January 14 and while that twilight meeting will be minus the fanfare of the TAB Karaka Millions on January 27, it is set to attract two of our top-flight superstars.
The trainers of both Legarto and Sharp N Smart have declared they will head to Ellerslie for an open handicap 1400m on January 14, using the race as a lead-up to the $1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic on January 27.
Legarto, who wasn’t put under any pressure in a trial at Matamata yesterday, and Sharp N Smart will then target the Herbie Dyke and Bonecrusher NZ Stakes, making them big players in the new Summer Bonus series covering four elite races.
Not only Ellerslie but Trentham also received another bonus yesterday with one of Australia’s two major racing TV channels, Racing.com, confirming it will be taking full coverage of four meetings next month.
That will bring extended coverage of the Telegraph meeting at Trentham on January 13, the Ellerslie comeback the next day, Wellington Cup day on January 20 and the Karaka Millions extravaganza to more eyeballs and punters, which is certain to increase turnover.
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.
