Mark Walker confident in Campionessa, Snazzytavi for Te Rapa race

Campionessa winning the Cal Isuzu Stakes last December.

Champion trainer Mark Walker is confident he can predict the quinella in tomorrow’s $175,000 Cal Isuzu Stakes at Te Rapa.

He just isn’t so sure his defending champion Campionessa is going to be on the right side of it.

Campionessa has a lot going for her in the Group 2, being the highest-rated horse in the race, perfectly drawn and with Opie Bosson back in the Te Ākau tangerine in what could be an important punting pointer to the summer.

So far, so good. Until you look one horse further down and see Snazzytavi, who may be every bit as good as Campionessa at her peak but is two years younger, seemingly in her prime.

“I think they will quinella the race, but Snazzytavi will be very hard to beat,” admits Walker.

“They are both very good mares but she [Snazzytavi] is two years younger and has been racing really well this spring, whereas we have had a few things go wrong.

“Campionessa missed a trial and we had to change her races around, and with an older horse like her, that makes it hard to get them really fit.

“She is working well and ready to go a good race, but I am not sure she beats Snazzytavi.”

Campionessa won this race last year during a golden summer but, whether it’s been through bad luck or the extra miles on the dial, she hasn’t looked quite as imposing this season.

Snazzytavi, though, has been awesome, looking an even stronger mare than the one that bolted away with the Easter Handicap last April.

She was dazzling winning here two starts ago and then spanked her rivals in the Group 1 Livamol transferred from Hastings, so is unbeaten in four Te Rapa runs.

If there is a concern for punters taking the short odds, it is that she hasn’t raced for two months and is being set for the Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, a race sponsored by her owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay.

But she absolutely hacked up to win her trial at Taupō on November 26 and looks a mare in the zone, the sort of zone Campionessa was in 12 months ago.

Walker and training partner Sam Bergerson roll out a strong team tomorrow, with the other big summer pointer being the return of Damask Rose in a stacked 3-year-old race.

She was second in the Karaka Million in just her second start last January, then a fresh-up third to superstar fillies Alabama Lass and Captured By Love at Hastings in September before being put aside for summer goals.

If she brings that form to the next three months, she can be a major player in both the Karaka Million Three-Year-Old and the NZB Kiwi, and Walker says even fresh she might be able to win tomorrow.

“It won’t be easy, because she is carrying 59kg in a good field,” he says.

“That is a lot of weight for a filly, but she is class, so she might overcome it.”

There is plenty of depth to the race though, and it wouldn’t surprise to see two or three from this field join race rival Sought After in the NZB Kiwi on March 8.

Walker says of his two juveniles in the opener tomorrow, he favours Towering Vision (R1, No 8) more because of the better draw, while the stable have Petrucci and What You Wish For in the J Swap Sprint, which has always been a good horse’s race.

It is made even more interesting tomorrow by some of the bigger names drawing poor, while others are racing short of their best distance.

“And Francee [R9, No 14] has had no luck so could surprise in the last race.”

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.