New Plymouth-trained galloper Insan Itee will need to be on her best behaviour if she is to score consecutive wins at Hawera today.
Noted for her cantankerous nature, the daughter of Danzalion goes into the $50,000 Opunake Cup (1400m) having not raced for more than two months.
Insan Itee, at
her last start, motored home to score an impressive open class handicap win at Te Rapa on May 21. She was to have raced earlier this month at Tauranga but the meeting was cancelled because of a waterlogged track.
With no suitable opportunities available in the interim, trainer Tracey Bliss has been forced to use training gallops and a barrier jump-out at Hawera to fit her charge for today's race.
Bliss said she was thrilled the way Insan Itee had been working.
"She looks good too, so fingers crossed," she said.
Bliss admitted to being a little concerned about the long gap between races.
"Mainly because she's done so well. But I think she's pretty well and she's gone well fresh in the past."
Insan Itee competed against last year's group one Kelt Capital Stakes winner Balmuse in the 1000m jump-out at Hawera a fortnight ago.
The heat had four runners and Insan Itee finished just in behind the winner. Bliss rides the mare in all her trackwork.
"She had to carry me around in the jump-out so he [Balmuse] was carrying a lot less weight than her. So I was happy with how she went," she said.
Yesterday, the TAB was quoting Insan Itee as third favourite at $6.50 on the fixed-odds market for the Opunake Cup. Ahead of her was Don't Ya Lovett ($4) and Irish Rover ($5). Irish Rover is shooting for his fourth consecutive Opunake Cup.
The Opunake Racing Club has assembled a top line-up of winter gallopers for its feature and it could convince the graded stakes committee to lift its status from listed stakes to group three.
- NZPA
