Sweynesday may have been a fortuitous last-start winner of the Haunui Kings Plate at Ellerslie when Alabama Lass took on the running rail at the 150m mark and lost, but there is no doubting his class with the speedster placed in all of his 10 starts, including six wins.
He was the first Kiwi home in the Sistema Railway on Karaka Millions night and co-trainer Wellwood said he is ready for the step up to Australian sprinting company today.
“We are really happy with him but not so much with the draw,” Wellwood said of barrier 11.
“If he had drawn to sit handy we would have given him a great chance but now we think he will settle back and run on and that is always a harder way to win.”
In different circumstances, Sweynesday wouldn’t be at Gosford or even in this part of the world because he was originally purchased by Singapore-based owner Eric Koh and associates to race in that country.
But racing in Singapore was halted in 2024 when the Government wanted the land at the Kranji track back to build housing, a decision that saddened Koh and many others.
However, the astute owner has spread his racing interests to new horizons and on Thursday night that paid its biggest dividend when his 2-year-old filly Chayan sold for A$5.6 million at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in Sydney.
Koh purchased the daughter of I Am Invincible for A$250,000 last year and after winning the Group 2 Reisling Stakes and finishing fifth in this year’s Golden Slipper she became the centre of a bidding duel on Thursday between racing superpowers Coolmare and Yulong, which is every seller’s dream.
“I thought the most she could go for was A$3.6m but they just kept going and going,” said Koh, a regular at New Zealand horse sales.
If Sweynesday can put the icing on top of Koh’s week today he will become the first New Zealand-trained winner of a major race at Gosford, although former Kiwi galloper Hezashocka won the Gosford Cup in 2024 when trained in Australia.
Hezashocka is now back in New Zealand and is topweight for the $100,000 Campbell Infrastructure Rotorua Cup today at a meeting that has everybody on weather watch.
Arawa Park was a Soft 7 on Friday but rain is forecast and it wouldn’t take much for the track to move into the heavy range, which is a whole new beast for punters.
After an unseasonably dry autumn at many northern race tracks there is a shortage of recent heavy-track form for punters to use as a guide. This means most would be wise to wait until morning track conditions have been checked before investing.
That aside, the Rotorua meeting provides some great betting races with its two features even contests and the entire card contained only one fixed-odds favourite below $3.80 last night
While Cup races are special to any racing club, the ITM Rotorua Stakes for the mares is the highlight of the day and perhaps the race most affected by any change in track conditions.
If the weather holds and the track favours those on the speed then favourite Kitty Flash will be suited but if any rain comes then 3-year-old filly Platinum Diamond’s $14 price won’t hold up as she is unbeaten in four starts on heavy tracks.
Today’s other domestic racing is at Waverley, while on the Gold Coast the talented Andrew Forsman-trained filly Single Red will start favourite in the A$160,000 Gold Coast Bracelet.
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.
