Racing: Auckland Cup winner Ocean Billy forces trainer to race him in Tauranga

Ocean Billy winning the Auckland Cup at Ellerslie last month - and he's still full of running. Photo / Trish Dunell

Auckland Cup winner Ocean Billy has forced trainer Bill Pomare to take him to Tauranga on Saturday.

If Pomare didn't, he was scared his stable star, who has the potential to become New Zealand racing's next folk hero, would hurt himself in his paddock.

Ocean Billy was sent for a spell after his crushing Cup win at Ellerslie 12 days ago and that was supposed to be the end of his season, yet he will now carry topweight over 1600m in the $100,000 Japan Trophy on Saturday.

If that sounds odd for a horse whose last four starts have been in Cups races ranging from 2100 to 3200m, consider his training regime since his Cup victory.

"He actually spent a week in the paddock but he was going nuts," says Pomare. "He was bucking and carrying on, trying to open the gate and I thought he was going to hurt himself.

"So I reneged and took him out of the paddock last weekend and have just cantered him, he hasn't done any fast work of any sort since the Cup.

"He will probably sprint up the straight here tomorrow and that will do him but he has a lot of fitness behind him and I think he was still on the way up after the Cup. He actually weighed more two days after the race than he did before it."

As the Waikato and Auckland Cup winner, Ocean Billy rates as our best domestic stayer, especially as The Chosen One does most of his racing in Australia, so can he be competitive over 1600m after such an unusual preparation?

"I think so, he ran third in this race last year," says Pomare.

"While he won the Auckland Cup I think it races more like a sprinting 3200m than a really hard two miles and he is still improving.

"But I am giving him this race to take the stuffing out of him and then I will let him down, trot him for a week or so to get him more relaxed and cut his feed back so he can have a proper spell."

While Ocean Billy is spelling, Pomare will be working with Australasia's greatest trainer on how to attack the most glamorous staying race of them all, the Melbourne Cup.

"After the Auckland Cup my phone rang and it was Chris Waller," explains Pomare.

"I was a bit shocked but he rang to congratulate me and say how rare it is to see horses winning a big 3200m race like he did.

"Then he said if I needed any advice or help to give him a call. It was bloody nice of him and he offered to help me find accommodation for the horse and what races to use as lead-ups.

"So I will be taking him up on his offer."

Waller wasn't the only congratulations call Pomare has been fielding, with his story touching so many.

"I had to take the battery out of my phone at one stage because so many people have called me and it has been wonderful."

Ocean Billy isn't the only hero of the recent Ellerslie carnival heading to Tauranga on Saturday as New Zealand Derby winner Rocket Spade is topweight in a $25,000 three-year-old event also over 1600m.

He is using the race to get ready for the $2 million ATC Derby at Randwick on April 10, a race that was originally programmed for April 3 but with the Sydney carnival pushed back because of their March monsoon, Rocket Spade needs a filler race.

Rocket Spade will have to carry 60.5kg and drop back 800m from his last start.