One Bold Cat’s trainer says chances at Seaton Park Handicap dim without blinkers

One Bold Cat winning the Counties Cup at Pukekohe. Photo / Kenton Wright

One Bold Cat will be without his turbo booster at New Plymouth tomorrow.

And trainer Robbie Patterson said that is enough to put him off tipping the big galloper to punters ahead of the $50,000 Seaton Park Handicap.

The race is a clash of returning Group 1 stars such as Mustang Valley, Ladies Man and One Bold Cat versus the race-hardened winter horses looking for one last victory before the tracks get too firm.

Patterson said while the New Plymouth surface was a soft 8 yesterday, rain is forecast for Friday and early Saturday so it is more likely to be heavy tomorrow.

That will suit One Bold Cat and topweight Mustang Valley but they will also find the 1400m short of their best as they aim for the last two legs of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown.

With those Group 1 targets in mind, Patterson will not play his trump card of adding blinkers to One Bold Cat tomorrow.

“He is a different horse when you add the blinkers, it sharpens him right up,” he told the Herald.

“But they tend to have their most dramatic effect the first time you throw them back on and I want to save that for the mile [Arrowfield Stud Plate] next start.

“So he might be a little bit too relaxed this week and a few others might get away on him.”

One Bold Cat is more of a 2000m horse but has won over 1400m on heavy tracks before and was an eye-catching third fresh up over 1200m last start so if the blinkers were on he’d be a good bet tomorrow. Without them, he doesn’t appeal quite as much.

Patterson also has Mary Louise in the race and she comes in well handicapped: she carried 56kg to win the Wellington Cup in January yet carries just 54.5kg tomorrow.

That means the Rating 91 mare only has 500g more than Rating 68 mare This Little Light but Patterson said she is racing too short of her best distance for it to matter.

“She will just follow them around and run on as best she can.”

The best horse in the field is Mustang Valley, who was a close-up fifth in the Foxbridge Plate last start and ploughs through wet tracks, but even with Ngakau Hailey’s 3kg claim she still has to carry 59.5kg.

With so few mares carrying those weights to win on heavy tracks at this level you can make a case for looking elsewhere, with horses such as Hey Yo Sass Bomb, Spencer, Gospodin and even Chajaba making differing levels of appeal, the latter two at huge odds.

Weight could also decide tomorrow’s other open feature over 1800m where local hero Justaskme has to carry 58kg even with a 4kg claim, so could be vulnerable to an in-form horse such as Diamond Jak carrying just 54kg.

Earlier in the programme, Patterson nominates last-start maiden winner Ballroom Blitz (R1, No 10) as his best chance of the day.

In tomorrow’s other domestic meeting, a strong North Island representation heads to Riccarton looking for black type in the Canterbury Belle Stakes as the road to the 1000 Guineas gets steeper.

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.