Racing: Outside chance Pareanui Bay draws hard route in Uncle Remus Stakes

Pareanui Bay. Photo / Race Images

If Pareanui Bay is going to complete his ascension to the top of the New Zealand three-year-old ranks at Ellerslie on Sunday, he is going to have to do it the hard way.

Which has been the story of his career so far.

Unbeaten in three starts, the gelding is a warm favourite for the $80,000 Uncle Remus Stakes, which offers diverse formline.

Pareanui Bay keeps winning by short margins but did so in a strong Sarten Memorial two starts ago, his stablemate Field Of Gold comes out of a Guineas campaign in Canterbury while On The Bubbles is the Karaka Million and Sires' Produce winner from last season on the comeback trail after a throat operation.

With 2000 Guineas winner Noverre sidelined, you could make a case Sunday's race is the battle for mid-season skiting rights in this crop, at least until Sword Of State returns, and even then he would seem likely to stick to a sprinting programme.

On The Bubbles should be enormously improved by his returning run at Te Rapa when he blew out and will not be easy to beat, especially because Pareanui Bay has drawn 10 in the 12-horse field, two spots outside his main rival.

But Pareanui Bay is used to that as he has never drawn inside barrier eight in a race, and has only drawn inside that gate once in three trials.

"No matter where we take him he draws poorly," laments trainer Tony Pike. "He is usually good enough to overcome it but it won't be easy over 1400m in this race with a horse like On The Bubbles having a run under his belt.

"I am confident we can still beat him but it won't be easy for sure."

Pareanui Bay is awfully short in the fixed odds for a horse who has never raced at Ellerslie but the long-strider handled it well when galloping with Field Of Gold there last Friday.

"He looked very comfortable and I am not worried about the track at all," says Pike.

A lot may come down to whether Opie Bosson can go forward on On The Bubbles and put horses between himself and Pareanui Bay, which could make the second favourite hard to catch. The latter does have the services of an in-form Michael McNab.

Both are good horses, one more proven than the other, and this could be their only clash for the season as On The Bubbles is being set for the Karaka Classic Mile while Pareanui Bay is ineligible for that and likely to head to Trentham next month and possibly even Australia.

Pike's team has been in form and he rates another of his talented three-year-olds, Doubtful Sound, in the last race as his best chance of the day.

"He is going well and we have a shot at the quinella in that race with Samian Seussie.

"We have a good team in and plenty of them have chances. I wouldn't be surprised to see any of them in the money but after those ones I think Dawn Parade (race two) and Bentayga (race four) would be good each-way chances."