Racing: Exhibition gallop guide to form of superstars

Legarto winning at Te Rapa with Ryan Elliot. Photo/Supplied

Punters could see a sneak preview of the most anticipated clash of the racing summer between races at Tauranga tomorrow.

Superstar three-year-olds Legarto and Wild Night, who dominate the market for the $1 million Karaka Classic Mile next week, are set to have an exhibition gallop together.

“We are hoping to gallop them together after race one when the track isn’t too bad,” says Legarto’s cotrainer Ken Kelso.

Legarto is unbeaten in five starts and is the $1.90 favourite for the Classic at Pukekohe on Saturday week. Wild Night has been beaten only once in the first of his six starts.

It is not unusual for Kelso and Wild Night’s trainer Mark Walker to gallop their better gallopers together, with Imperatriz and Levante partnering before the former won the Railway on New Year’s Day.

Imperatriz will miss Saturday’s Telegraph at Trentham but Levante heads there as a hot favourite after her third in the Railway and Kelso is certain the race has brought her on.

“She is definitely more advanced after that run,” he told the Herald.

That opinion was franked by a track work gallop on Tuesday with another member of Team Te Akau in Cognito, with not only Kelso happy with what he saw but champion jockey Opie Bosson, who rode Cognito, impressed by the outstanding mare’s work alongside him.

Levante is the defending Telegraph champion and meets weaker opposition than she did in last year’s stellar edition of the Group 1 and Kelso says she has already proven the sweeping dogleg 1200m suits her.

“We know that from her win here last year in a very good field and also how she has raced down straight at Flemington that a big, flat track like that suits her. So I am certain she will be better this week than she was and this race suits her better.”

Kelso is hopeful of some moisture but not too much in the track.

“Some give in the track suits and it looks like the weather there is set to improve so we should get the sortof surface we want.”

The Telegraph is the highlight of the day, with Sharp ‘N’ Smart headlining the Wellington Guineas while the Wellesley Stakes brings together some of the talented juveniles who aren’t eligible for next week’s Karaka Million.

The Trentham Stakes is the final lead-up to the Wellington Cup on January 28, while Saturday’s Anniversary Handicap fills the same role for the Thorndon Mile two weeks later.