Racing: Levante’s hopes rest with state of track, weather

Levante. Photo / Supplied

The one thing Kiwi trainer Ken Kelso can’t control is his only worry heading into the last race of Levante’s season in Sydney on Saturday.

The Matamata mare is one of the favourites for the A$1 million Queen of the Turf at Randwick, on the same card where New Zealand has two serious winning chances in the A$1 million Australian Oaks.

Levante has shown her class with three strong performances at Group1 level in Australia, including finishing fifth to Anamoe last start, but Kelso admits he would like a track no worse than soft at Randwick.

That surface was a heavy8 yesterday but with the promise of improvement, and Kelso is hoping that comes.

“We don’t want heavy obviously but soft will be okay and the better it gets in the soft range the happier I will be,” Kelso told the Herald.

“She is really well and I am happy with her so on a decent track she will have a big race.”

Levante has drawn slightly wide at barrier 13 but to start from 12, although her natural racing pattern would suggest that is not an issue.

She does, however, meet some high-class rivals including Fangirl, who was second in the race that Levante was fifth in last start, while the intrigue comes from outstanding former UK mare Alcohol Free.

She won at the highest level in the UK before being purchased for the second highest price for a racehorse at a European sale — $5.4 million guineas ($11 million) last year.

Alcohol Free has won her sole Australian trial for new trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and has James McDonald in the saddle so her performance will be fascinating.

The other highlight will be Kiwi fillies Pennyweka and Polygon in the Oaks. Pennyweka was a late entry for trainer Jim Wallace after bolting away with an average New Zealand Oaks at Trentham on March 18.

She arrives in Sydney an in-form proven stayer who can handle any track conditions and like Levante has the services of Damian Lane against what is not a vintage local crop.

So too will be Polygon if the Randwick track has more give than in her last two Australian starts, as she was seventh behind Prowess in the Vinery last start and could be the each-way value on Saturday.

The other big-name Kiwi representative on Saturday is talented juvenile filly Ethereal Star who makes her Australian debut in the A$1 million Percy Syke against only nine Australian rivals and keeps up the theme of New Zealand galloping stars with Lane in the saddle.

“She has travelled well and is ready to go but it is impossible to line up the form,” says her trainer Andrew Forsman. “But I think she will go well.”