Mendoza contests Race 3 at Ellerslie today. Photo / NZME
Punters were stunned when Fair Script won at $50 at Te Rapa two starts back, but not trainer John Wheeler.
And the astute Taranaki mentor will be equally unsurprised if the steeplechaser wins today's $50,000 McGregor Grant Steeplechase at Ellerslie.
Fair Script followed up his win when beaten into third by small margins behind The Big Opal and Mr Mor in the Waikato Steeplechase.
"He's really gone ahead since that Waikato meeting," said Wheeler yesterday. "The only question mark I've put on him is the track. If he handles it I think he can be very competitive." This would be a very appropriate victory if Fair Script could pull it off. The race honours the memory of probably the most important figure in the history of the Auckland Racing Club - and New Zealand racing for that matter.
As much as the Australian-born Alexander McGregor Grant was an outstanding surgeon, amateur jockey and brilliant racing administrator, his sharpness only just managed to at times mask a larrikin streak.
He and John Wheeler would have made the perfect brace.
Wheeler starts off the day with Mendoza in Race 3 in the Faceup - Low Fees in Real Estate maiden steeplechase. Like all good trainers, Wheeler is a good loser, but he marks his horses hard. Mendoza was beaten only one and a quarter lengths and a neck behind Highly Likely and Beverley Back at Te Rapa last time and Wheeler was not happy.
"I thought it was a very disappointing effort. I think he should have won. He tends to give up when he's stuffed, but I suppose I do that too," he laughs.
"I've switched jockeys [to Shaun Phelan] because I feel a jockey with a touch more impact might be able to keep him rolling late. Once again, if he handles the footing, he can win." As always, the McGregor Grant is an interesting contest. Crash Bandicoot won Riverton's Great Western last start and as an Ellerslie winner he rates highly.
Topweight Jack Romanov has won this race for the last two years.
In 2015 he went on to win the Great Northern Steeplechase, but unfortunately last year he went amiss physically before the Northern.
You have to believe he would improve with this run, but his class will take him into the race for a long way.
We talked about appropriate winners and none would be more so than Ann Browne winning the Ken Browne Hurdles with Raisafuasho in a race that honours the memory of one of the fathers of jumps racing, the late Ken Browne.
Raisafuasho was unlucky not to have won one of the majors last winter and looks well placed in this.
Early in the programme Simply Implacable looks a great prospect for the Baker/Forsman team. On debut she handled a heavy 11 well to finish second and the stable, being what it is, would not run if everything was not well. Salted Caramel is a value runner in Race 9.
Trainer Samantha Logan is prepared to forgive the last start performance of stable star Ngatira Gold as she sets her sights on a victory in the KS Browne Hurdle at Ellerslie today..
Last season's Great Northern Hurdles placegetter was one of the well fancied runners in the Waikato Hurdles last month.
But he blotted his copybook with an indifferent performance that saw him finish a well beaten seventh in the event.
Logan believes a tricky track surface that day played against her charge and that the six-year-old gelding can turn that form around in a return to one of his favourite venues.
"He just didn't cop the shifty track at Te Rapa which was disappointing as we thought he was ready to go a bold race," she explained.
"We couldn't find anything wrong with him afterwards so that's really all I can put it down to."
"He really likes Ellerslie and tends to go his best races there," Logan said.
Ngatira Gold will face a small but quality line-up in the race that includes Waikato Hurdles winner Thenamesbond, former Great Northern Hurdles winner Wee Biskit and sentimental favourite Raisafuasho.
- Additional reporting NZ Racing Desk