Lance O’Sullivan’s quartet ready for $3.5m NZB Kiwi race at Ellerslie

Sethito. Photo / Kenton Wright / Race Images

The Kings of the Kiwi have four horses and two ways to win our richest ever horse race at Ellerslie on Saturday.

But Lance O’Sullivan says the key to the first running of the $3.5 million NZB Kiwi will be tempo.

O’Sullivan and training partner Andrew Scott have four representatives in our first big-money thoroughbred slot race in Checkmate, Sethito, Hankee Alpha and Sought After.

All four fared well at Tuesday night’s barrier draw for the 1500m thriller and O’Sullivan, the former champion jockey turned top trainer, knows just getting four horses into the slot race is a mammoth achievement.

Now they have to work out how to win it, a task that has become immensely more challenging with three Australian visitors now heading the market.

“We love the idea of the race so to get four in it is a huge achievement and we are proud of that,” O’Sullivan told the Herald.

“But if I had to choose our best hopes it would be between Sethito and Checkmate.

“Sethito has actually improved since she won at Ellerslie last start and she has the speed to use her draw so she will be handy,” says O’Sullivan.

“She ticks a lot of boxes but the early pressure and seeing what else comes across out from out wide will be interesting.

“Because she will be on the speed she would be suited by less pressure, whereas Checkmate hits the line so well the harder they go the better it will suit him.”

That gives their Wexford Stables different leading hopes depending on which scenario unfolds. That is not to say Sethito couldn’t also jump, get handy but then take a trail and still be a huge winning chance.

“We couldn’t be happier with her. Everything has gone spot-on for her.

“Checkmate is in the same boat. He did what he needed to last start and that has brought him on as we hoped it would.”

Tellingly, both horses have high-level winning form at Ellerslie, something only Damask Rose, Ardalio and to a lesser degree Penman also take into the Kiwi.

O’Sullivan says Sought After, the first horse to secure a Kiwi slot, is still on the way up after a slight setback with a spiked temperature a month ago but has worked well this week.

“And Hankee Alpha has really come on since her last run [fifth to Sethito] and worked especially well the other day.”

Checkmate, to be ridden by Kevin Stott, is not only the most favoured of the Wexford quartet but of all the locals, rated an $8 chance as fourth favourite in a market headed by Evaporate at $2.70.

Sethito, with one of our best jump-and-run jockeys in Sam Spratt aboard, looks some of the best value in the race at $12, while Hankee Alpha and Sought After were both rated $31 hopes.

New Zealand Bloodstock Kiwi field

The field for New Zealand’s richest ever horse with confirmed jockeys is:

NZB KIWI, $3.5 million, 1500m at Ellerslie at 4.32pm on Saturday.

1: Evaporate (10) Mick Dee

2: Public Attention (14) Wiremu Pinn

3: Checkmate (3) Kevin Stott

4: Penman (13) Matt Cartwright

5: Domain Ace (9) Craig Grylls

6: Sought After (4) Ryan Elliot

7: Perfumist (2) Ash Morgan

8: Damask Rose (8) Blake Shinn

9: Pivotal Ten (12) Samantha Wynne

10: Sethito (7) Sam Spratt

11: Ardalio (11) Michael McNab

12: Hankee Alpha (6) Masa Hashizume

13: First Dance (1) Warren Kennedy

14: Zormella (5) George Rooke

Emergencies: Class, Hard Roca, Tristar, Moschino.

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.