Racing: Plan hatched for Sharp ‘N’ Smart to overcome horror barrier draw

Sharp 'N' Smart. Photo / Getty

New Zealand training legend Graeme Rogerson has a plan how Sharp ‘N’ Smart can overcome his horror barrier draw in today’s A$2 million ATC Derby in Sydney.

The only problem is he is a little vague on how champion jockey Hugh Bowman is going to implement the finer details of that plan.

Rogerson and wife Debbie train Sharp ‘N’ Smart, who has already won Group 1 races on both sides of the Tasman, including the New Zealand Derby, and is widely seen as the best horse in today’s classic.

But he has barrier 17, and with only 188m between the Derby start point and the first bend at Randwick, Sharp ‘N’ Smart risks being stuck wide if Bowman presses forward, or having a lot of horses in front of him if he takes the conservative approach and retreats to the back of the field.

“We won’t be going back to last,” says Rogerson.

“Hughie knows the horse and how strong he is, so he will roll forward and be sixth or seventh one off the fence going out of the straight.

“But that is Hughie’s job. I won’t tell him how to do it.”

If Bowman can pull off that miracle, Sharp ‘N’ Smart should be in a comfortable position, as his class should land him his second Derby.

“He is better than when he won the Derby at Te Rapa, he keeps growing up,” says Rogerson.

“His work on Tuesday was outstanding; he galloped 2000m and rounded off with 400m in just over 22 seconds, so he is ready.”

New Zealand will also be represented by the New Zealand Derby placegetters in Andalus, Full Of Sincerity and Mark Twain, with the latter possibly our next best chance after drawing well, although he tends to get back, and that is not an easy way to win a Derby.

On one of the biggest days on the Australian racing calendar, New Zealand has few other hopes, with Mustang Valley lightly weighted in the Doncaster but not aided by the warm Sydney weather drying out the Randwick track.

Nature Strip, part-owned here and trained by Chris Waller and ridden by James McDonald, who will try for his fourth straight TJ Smith win and possibly staving off retirement as the sun starts to go down on his wonderful career.

Closer to home, the second-last Group 1 of the New Zealand season is the $350,000 Sires’ Produce at Awapuni, where Te Akau will try for some level of compensation for a tough week by winning with Trobriand.

New Zealand’s biggest stable, and their champion jockey Opie Bosson, are set to lose our other juvenile Group 1, the Sistema Stakes, after their star colt Tokyo Tycoon returned a positive swab, the source of which has now been claimed as an error by a staff member which was recorded on their CCTV cameras.

Trobriand has played second fiddle to Tokyo Tycoon the past two months but is the most proven horse in today’s race and looks ideally suited to the 1400m, so from barrier two is likely to start odds-on.