By MIKE DILLON
Waikato apprentice Stephan Lockie might end up riding a finish against his boss Keith Hawtin in the $20,000 Amarula Cream Fruit Cream 3YO at Ellerslie tomorrow.
The promising Lockie rides Takanini filly Playful Fingers, who could fight out the finish with the Graeme Rogerson/Keith Hawtin-trained Clear Advantage, the
ride of Lance O'Sullivan.
Lockie's apprentice allowance reduces Playful Fingers' 57.5kg topweight to 53kg, competitive against Clear Advantage's 55.5kg.
Playful Fingers is a better chance than her latest form suggests. She faded against the older horses in handicap class at Te Rapa last start, but her two previous efforts were a lot better.
Her big third to Kasman in very fast time at Tauranga when fresh from a spell as a gem.
"The track has to be a bit of a concern," said co-trainer Frank Ritchie yesterday.
"We know she likes rain-affected tracks, whether she likes it this heavy we can only wait and see.
"She is very bright right now and has been working well."
Keith Hawtin is looking for a greatly improved effort from Clear Advantage, who has been well out of the money in two starts this season after looking exceptional at the end of her 2-year-old career with three straight wins.
."We're very happy with her," said Hawtin.
"She found the tracks too hard for her in those two starts earlier, but we won't strike that problem this time.
"We know she likes anything that isn't hard, but to be fair we're guessing a bit that she will like it as heavy as she is going to strike.
"We're a little bit in the dark, but she may well cope."
No elaborate plans have been set for Clear Advantage.
"We just want to get her back on track before we look to high. We'll just take it race by race for a while."
