Racing: Gath happy to take on Kiwis

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Victorian horseman Andy Gath doesn't mind travelling with his horses at all.

Which is one reason why his pacer Padrisimo is the sole Australian representative in this Saturday's Harness Jewels at Cambridge.

The other? The son of Bettor's Delight is a genuine chance in the $150,000 2-year-old male pacing final, especially after drawing the front line with hot favourite Follow The Stars drawn on the second row.

The Victorian trainer and his diminutive pacer fly to New Zealand tomorrow - a trip which Gath admits was far from his mind before his debut at Ballarat in early February.

"We never really had much of an opinion of him to be honest," Gath said yesterday.

"He's just one of those horses that emerged after he had a couple of trials under him and a couple of races. He's been a surprise package."

"He's little but he's very powerful in the body."

Now the winner of five of his seven starts, Padrisimo has given Gath and owner Rob Nalder another excuse to campaign a horse in New Zealand, after making the journey to the New Zealand Cup with Caribbean Blaster for the past two years. "If we got the invite, we were always keen and always going to come.

"Being New Zealand-bred, he had no sires stakes racing here in Aussie so we've been able to give him a bit of a break and get him ready for the Jewels."

In fact, Padrisimo has not had a race start since late March, with Gath opting to keep him up to the task with regular trials.

Padrisimo has landed barrier six, a draw Gath is not too concerned about, particularly with Follow The Stars drawing badly.

"I always like to draw one but like everything, you don't know until after the race whether it's a good draw or a bad draw," he said.

"He's got reasonable gate speed - he doesn't really fly out but we'll come out as quick as we can and see what happens early.

"He's a pretty versatile type of horse - he can make his own luck a little bit. But in saying that, when you're in a quality race like this, you can't overdrive him and beat them."

Follow The Stars and Padrisimo have followed different paths in their debut seasons, and are yet tackle each other on raceday.

Gath has been impressed by what he's seen from the All Stars Stables' rising star, but has plenty of respect for the rest of the field.

"On both sides of the Tasman, we've seen how good he can go. Obviously, he's the one to beat but there's about 10 other horses we've got to beat as well - the race has got plenty of depth in it."

Gath rubbished suggestions that the Jewels are held at the wrong time for Australian horses, and that more horses would have made the trip if the age-group championship was held at a different stage of the season.

"People are saying the timing of it's not good, but the timing of it is perfect for me - I don't know when you're supposed to have them if you don't have them now.

"It's a race you don't have to pay up for [as an Australian invite]. You just turn up and you're in it.

"I'm a bit surprised more Aussies aren't in it, but I think a few Aussies are a bit lazy about travelling; they find it a bit daunting."