Beautiful Girl (L) will use the Northlanders' Challenge at Ruakaka tomorrow as a pipe opener for Hastings next month. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Beautiful Girl probably has the greatest number of plus points of the guns who line up for fresh starts in tomorrow's $17,000 Northlanders' Challenge at Ruakaka.
She and Run Like Al have good records when fresh from breaks, the difference being the weight differential of 59.5kg to 57.5kg.
Not that
Run Like Al is a duffer at weight carrying - in March he lumped 58kg to win at Tauranga, beating Raid and Dashing Donna, who carried 54.5kg and 53.5kg respectively.
Two months earlier, Run Like Al was beaten a nose by Veloce Bella at Tauranga carrying 58kg and conceding the mare 2kg.
The 59.5kg looks formidable this time, but the race has a 54kg minimum.
The 2kg gap back to Beautiful Girl may prove critical.
Beautiful Girl has not raced since finishing ninth at Awapuni on April 3.
Trainer Leanne Franklin says she is satisfied the good-quality mare was not quite right in her two more recent beaten performances, that Manawatu race and in the Railway at Ellerslie.
"Her fitness wasn't quite right for the Railway and she didn't really let down in the track conditions.
"In that last run she didn't settle down in what was an overnight trip."
Franklin is aiming Beautiful Girl at the Mudgway Stakes at Hastings in late August.
"This race gives us the opportunity to get a race into her on a little bit better track."
Run Like Al is so tough and genuine he rates a winning chance.
The weight conceded to Obsession (54kg) may be the crucial factor.
Obsession is a classy type, who finished third in the Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha and was then a fast-closing sixth in the Easter at Ellerslie before being spelled.
She has brilliance to stay handy, even at 1200m, particularly when fresh, and should be in the right place to launch a finish from the home bend.
Sterling Prince is better over the longer distances, but he races well on the fresh side and it would not surprise to see him close up to the placegetters, even with his weight (59kg).
Regardless of the result of this race, the contest will throw up exactly what we can expect from some of our better horses through the spring and summer.
