Racing: Auckland Cup credentials still flowing for Aquacade

Auquacade. Photo / Trish Dunell

Aquacade keeps ticking all the boxes of an Auckland Cup favourite.

The mare took some effortless steps toward the $500,000 Cup at Pukekohe on March 11 when she bolted to a dominant win at Tauranga yesterday.

The race was only a tune-up for the Avondale Cup in a fortnight but while trainer Lance Noble believes Aquacade is more suited to better conditions, she aquaplaned over the heavy10 surface and could have won by 10 lengths.

Aquacade can handle wet and dry, has already won over 2400m and has the breeding stoutness of being out of a Sea The Stars mare, so deserves her $4.50 Auckland Cup favouritism.

But the icing on that cake is that under the set weights and penalties conditions, she will only carry 53kg in the Cup and cannot be re-handicapped even if she wins her final lead-up in the Avondale Cup.

South African jockey Warren Kennedy is the regular rider of both Aquacade and Cup second favourite Dionysus but Noble says Kennedy will, all going well, partner Aquacade.

One decision Kennedy won’t have to make is between star 3-year-old filly Prowess and Defibrillate in Saturday’s $450,000 Herbie Dyke at Te Rapa.

Prowess will bypass the weight-for-age race to start in the Ellis Classic the same day, her performance there determining whether she presses on to the NZ Derby on March 4.

“The Derby is still very much on the radar but we want to see how she goes this Saturday and also how some of her Derby rivals perform,” says co-trainer Roger James.

Derby favourite Sharp ‘N’ Smart is a confirmed Herbie Dyke starter and also for the Derby, with Ryan Elliot to ride.

Rollercoaster hits low

Copy That’s rollercoaster career in Victoria hit another low in the A$500,000 Hunter Cup on Saturday.

The Kiwi was a warm favourite for the Group 1 but after losing an early speed duel he over-raced, choked down and was pulled out of the race.

To make matters worse the standard post-race veterinary examination shows he had suffered a grade 3 bleed in his lower respiratory tract and he was automatically stood down from racing for 28 days.

While disappointed, trainer Ray Green is adamant he can still get Copy That to the $1 million The Race at Cambridge on April 14.

“He has had issues before and bounced straight back from them and he just seems a lot happier at home,” says Green.

“So The Race at Cambridge will be his next big target and I am sure we can get him ready for that.”

The weekend wasn’t a total write-off for New Zealand pacers in Australia as B D Joe won on Menangle debut to set himself up for a Miracle Mile campaign while Canterbury pacer Republican Party also won his first Australian start and qualified for the Chariots Of Fire on February 18.