“She has won on both but most importantly she won last start at Ellerslie and it was a good track that day.
“So I think the change to Ellerslie definitely won’t disadvantage us whereas it might do for a few others.”
The two mares who look best suited by the change are Pearl Of Alsace and Belclare, the latter already a winner at the new Ellerslie in the Westbury Classic on Karaka Millions night.
Eight of Belclare’s 10 career wins have come on good tracks and she won this race last season when it was run at Pukekohe on a good4, beating subsequent Group 1 winner Skew Wiff.
Mares such as Pearl Of Alsace and Belclare should be at home racing close to the speed in what should be a 1600m that suits those who are handy and Ritchie says his mare is ready for the assignment that could seal the deal for an already very commercial broodmare career.
“This is a race we have set her for and the whole prep could hardly have gone better,” says Ritchie.
“She had that soft fresh-up win and has thrived since and Nabba [Michael McNab, jockey] came and rode her on Wednesday and was smiling when he jumped off.
“She has the right barrier to stay handy and I think she takes a lot of beating.”
While Ritchie couldn’t be happier fellow Cambridge horseman Andrew Forsman is one who admits he would prefer Saturday’s race was at Te Aroha.
“When we set her for this we had the hope the track could be at least a little wet but obviously that won’t be the case at Ellerslie,” says Forsman.
“We even toyed with the idea of taking her to Sydney this weekend but she is still a good mare on a good to firm surface but better when it is rain affected.
“So she will still race well and then we will probably look at the Queen Of The Turf in Sydney on April 13.”
The horse who spans wet and dry form and whose class is without doubt is La Crique, who looked back to her beautiful best when she beat Aegon and Desert Lightning in the Group 1 at Ōtaki last start.
She will blast past $1 million in earnings if she wins, or even finishes second, on Saturday but to do that she will have to overcome the outside gate.
If she has any luck she can win but she may have to burn early to stay in touch with the other favourites. Still, she is the best performed mare in the field and with any luck could claim her third Group1 and set up a return to Australia.
Add in Wellington Guineas winner Grail Seeker, the vastly-improved Maria Farina and brave Central Districts mares Town Cryer and Hey Yo Sass Bomb and the Breeders looks a contest worthy of its title of New Zealand’s only Group 1 fillies and mares race.
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.
