Horse racing: Willydoit strengthens NZ Derby credentials

Willydoit winning at Ellerslie on Saturday. Photo / Kenton Wright

Willydoit won more than a race at Ellerslie on Saturday.

He created the smallest crack of doubt in the minds of his greatest rival for the $1.25 million Trackside New Zealand Derby on March 8.

Willydoit has been the long-time favourite for the classic on Champions Day, and is looking stronger and more mentally mature every start.

On Saturday, he was able to be used enough early to hold a forward rail position over 1600m against older horses, and when jockey Kevin Stott asked him to sprint through the enormous gap that presented itself at the top of the straight, he looked every inch the horse to beat in the Derby.

While he has the size and stride of his Derby-winning sire Tarzino, Willydoit also has class and looked a potential weight-for-age horse of the future in the way he dealt to his opponents.

He looks certain to enjoy the 2100m of the Eagle Technology Avondale Guineas on February 22 even more, and it is hard to imagine the 2400m of the Derby troubling him.

The ranks of genuine Derby contenders can change quickly at this time of the year. Willydoit’s stablemate Interplanetary, for example, did his Derby qualifications no favours when he peaked on his run in the race immediately beforehand on Saturday.

And later at Ellerslie, two of our modern-day Derby kings, Roger James and Robert Wellwood, produced a latecomer for the classic in Oceana Dream.

“The Derby is the aim, so he’s 90% [ready] to go to the Avondale Guineas,” says Wellwood.

But the horse which has all summer looked the most consistent Derby threat to Willydoit is untapped filly Hinekaha, which added winning a black-type to her resume in the Oaks Prelude at New Plymouth on Saturday.

She wasn’t as dazzling as Willydoit but Derbys are rarely won by dazzlers – yet trainer Andrew Forsman admits he has some decisions to make.

“I thought she was really good in what could have been a niggly race with two of the favourites, and therefore some of the tempo coming out of the race,” says Forsman. “She’ll go to the Avondale Guineas next and we’ll know a lot more after that.”

Forsman knows all about training Derby winners and admits he likes what he sees from Willydoit, so their clash will tell him how the pair line up.

“He looks a real Derby horse, and while that’s still our aim, too, after the Avondale Guineas, we can decide what we think is best for her.

“If we think we can still win the Derby, then it will be her aim, but being a filly, we have the option to change course to the New Zealand Oaks on March 22.

“The Oaks is now $1m, which is not much less than the Derby, and our job with her now is to get a Group 1 win. So we’ll decide what we think is the best way to do that.

“But so much depends on the Avondale Guineas, not just for us but everybody, because Derby preparations are funny things.”

Forsman and a bunch of big-name mates are already assured of having a player in one major 3-year-old race on Champions Day, as he is part of the King’s Men syndicate which has a slot in the $3.5m NZB Kiwi.

The syndicate, which also includes former All Black Mark Carter and his brother John, as well as Warriors boss Cameron George, have selected Ardalio to represent them.

The Stephen Marsh-trained filly was a barnstorming winner of the Cambridge Stud Almanzor Trophy on Karaka Millions night, and while Forsman doesn’t train her, he likes her credentials.

“We wanted a horse who has speed and she does, and we’re in with some good people, so we’re thrilled to get her.”

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.