Horse racing: Andrew Forsman hoping good things come in threes with transtasman assault

Single Reid bolted in at Te Rapa last start and has strong black-type form. Photo / Kenton Wright

Andrew Forsman has achieved plenty in his training career, but tomorrow’s triple threat might be a first even for him.

The Cambridge horseman lines up the favourite in feature races at three different tracks in two countries tomorrow, a rarity for even the biggest stables.

Forsman has Kitty Flash (Race 8, No 6) as favourite in the $100,000 Rotorua ITM Stakes, one of the last remaining black-type races for fillies and mares this season.

He also has Mr Mojo Risin in the $40,000 open 1400m at Waverley, one of the track’s two open handicaps on a day that could be run on an unseasonably firm track.

And Forsman has sent Single Red across the Tasman, where the 3-year-old filly has already been heavily backed to win the A$160,000 Gold Bracelet on the Gold Coast as she builds toward next month’s Queensland Oaks.

“We thought it was a good race for her but we weren’t quite sure what she would be up against,” Forsman said.

“But looking at the field, there aren’t many of the better, more exposed local fillies so I can see how she has opened favourite.

“She was good winning last time and has a handy draw and the tactical speed to use it and we have Gryllsy [jockey Craig Grylls] on ... so she should race handy and be hard to beat.”

Australian bookies clearly took a line through Single Red’s form close up behind subsequent ATC Oaks winner Ohope Wins in opening her as the $3.60 favourite, but that didn’t last long and she had been backed in to $2.80 last night.

While Single Red has an ideal draw, back home Kitty Flash is drawn very wide at Rotorua but Forsman says that doesn’t concern him as much as the weather might.

“She has really good speed and it isn’t a field with a lot of pressure inside her so I think she can still go forward,” he said.

“So she can win but I’d hate to see more rain and the track get testing because the 1400m might be right at the end of her range even on a decent track but it could really stretch her if it gets wet.”

Forsman also has Pacifico (R7, No 2) in the $100,000 Rotorua Cup a race earlier and he is one horse who wouldn’t mind more rain.

“I thought he was really good in the Hawke’s Bay Cup last start,” Forsman said of Pacifico, who won three races on end this time last year, two of them on heavy tracks.

Forsman said Mr Mojo Risin was badly in need of a run fresh-up at Ellerslie last start so he expects improvement at Waverley, but there still may be some tightening to come.

“It looks a nice race for him getting so much weight [6kg] off the topweight but I have my slight suspicions he might be another run away from being at his peak,” Forsman said.

In an interesting footnote, the Gold Coast meeting features a rare clash of former Melbourne Cup champions as last year’s winner Half Yours takes on 2024 Cup hero Knights Choice in the Hollindale Stakes, the pair up against New Zealand-bred queen Pride Of Jenni.

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.