Racing: Different outlook for Opie Bosson and Skew Wiff at Te Rapa

Skew Wiff won the Tarzino Trophy at Hastings last September. Photo / Race Images

The last time Opie Bosson rode Skew Wiff in a race the outlook was vastly different to what the pair face at Te Rapa today.

Our champion jockey hopes to get down to 56.5kg very early in the season to partner the high-class mare in today’s $150,000 Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate, Skew Wiff being owned by the race sponsors.

Remarkably for a mare who won last season’s group one Tarzino Trophy and has amassed over $600,000 in stakes, Skew Wiff has only won four of her 20 starts, Bosson being on board for each visit to the winner’s circle.

While a classy Foxbridge field and two good jumps races will bring a few along to Te Rapa today, the crowd will still be about 70,000 to 80,000 short of the last time they partnered up on race day, at last November’s Melbourne Cup.

Bosson rode the perfect race to get Skew Wiff home on one of world racing’s biggest stages that day and she then spent the summer chasing elite Australian sprint prizes like the Group 1 Rupert Clarke, Oakleigh Plate, Newmarket and Sangster Stakes.

While Skew Wiff couldn’t bag her Aussie Group 1, her record confirms she is one of the better horses in today’s sprint with the added positives of having run second in this race last before winning the Tarzino at her next start on a heavy track.

Te Rapa had improved to a Heavy 9 yesterday and additional drying may suit Skew Wiff, albeit there was rain forecast for overnight and today.

“She was a good fourth at the trials two weeks ago and she has come on well since then,” says Bosson.

“She obviously has class so I think she will be in the finish but from what I saw in her trial, Sacred Satono who won it is the one to beat.”

The latter has been the best-backed horse in the Foxbridge ($4.80 to $3.70) but how much rain, if any, falls today could be a crucial factor.

Rain would bring proven wet trackers like Wewillrock and Mustang Valley into play but a deep heavy may not help speedsters Bonny Lass and Master Fay.

Bosson suggests he will go close in an early race today on Truth Or Dare (R2, No.3), who won impressively at the trials on a heavy track.

He goes into the new season on 98 career Group 1 wins and expects to spend more race days this spring in New Zealand than last year when Imperatriz and others took him to Australia.

Today’s meeting also hosts the Pakuranga Hunt Hurdle and Steeplechases as we close in on the two Great Northerns back at Te Rapa on September 15.

While Skew Wiff will fly the flag for trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson domestically today, they have targeted two extremely different races in Victoria this weekend.

One of the stable’s other speedster mares in Sans Doute is the third favourite for the Carlyon Stakes (7.15pm NZ time), with the 1000m looking ideal, although she is drawn slightly wide.

Racing over 3500m further than that for the stable will be Leaderboard at Ballarat on Sunday when he tackles the A$400,000 Grand National Steeplechase with Aaron Kuru in the saddle.

Leaderboard and another talented former Kiwi handicapper in The Good Fight both meet the pin-up boy of Australian jumps racing in Stern Idol, who has become a steeplechasing sensation but has paid the price, having to concede Leaderboard 9kg tomorrow.

* The New Zealand racing industry lost one of its biggest owners of recent decades when Kevin Hickman OMNZ passed away.

Hickman was one of the founders of Ryman Healthcare and a huge force in the thoroughbred breeding and ownership worlds, including setting up breeding operation Valachi Downs.

He also owned champion race mare Silent Achiever.

Hickman sold Valachi Downs and almost all his bloodstock interests in 2022 as his health started to deteriorate.