Horses who haven’t won a race for two years rarely appeal as much as Mali Ston does in the $175,000 Ultimate Mazda Japan Trophy at Tauranga tomorrow.
The Group 2 over 1600m brings together an unusual bunch from stayers coming out of an Auckland Cup to weight-for-age contenders in recentGroup 1s and even an emerging talent such as Financier, who should have no chance under the weights scale but still does. But one of the strongest form lines, albeit all of it placed form, belongs to Mali Ston.
The six-year-old hasn’t won a race since the Rich Hill Mile 27 months ago although he did spend 16 months away from the races with a leg issue.
This summer he has been brave in races such as the Herbie Dyke (fourth to Legarto) and has chased around horses like Mustang Valley, Campionessa and El Vencedor so slots into tomorrow’s 1600m well.
“We think 1600m is probably his best trip even though we had to have a crack at the 2000m weight-for-age races with him,” says co-trainer Darren Weatherley.
“He has a wide draw on Saturday but he is racing well and I think he gets his chance although our other horse Dark Destroyer would really come into it if there was some rain about.”
The weather and tempo of the race could provide so many variations any one of seven or eight horses could win without surprising.
One of those best suited by the distance and how Tauranga can often favour those who settle handy is Saint Bathans, who should be close to peaking and take running down.
He could be joined on the speed by Rudyard and possibly even Financier and if they can get a break on the stayers and weight-for-age horses the winner could come from the Cambridge trio
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
