Racing: Play That Song back in the charts

Play That Song. Photo / Trish Dunell

The filly at the centre of the great punting plunge stories of last season makes her long-awaited return at Te Rapa tomorrow but trainer Nigel Tiley is warning punters to be a little cautious.

Although Play That Song (R3, No 3) can win the Dunstan Feeds Three-Year-Old, Tiley says she is anything but screwed down.

Play That Song was at the centre of one of the great, yet unsuccessful, punting stories of last season when she was sensationally backed into $1.50 to win the Karaka Million at Ellerslie in January, no small move in one of New Zealand's biggest races.

Much of the move was likely to have come from algorithm robots used for betting on exchanges, which often favour horses, trainers and jockeys with superior strike rates and then drive prices down on Betfair and bookies Australasia-wide follow them.

Heading into the Karaka Million, Play That Song was unbeaten, Tiley's strike rate was lethal and jockey James McDonald had been superb through the Ellerslie carnivals.

So the computers spat out Play That Song as a good thing and McDonald's army of fans didn't need much convincing to follow him.

Her price went into a freefall in the final five minutes before the race that was truly stunning.

As it turned out Play That Song was good, but Cool Aza Beel was better and her beat her by a length and a half after getting to an outrageous $15 to win on Betfair (out from $5) in one of the craziest betting moves seen in a major race in New Zealand.

Play That Song raced only once after for a luckless fourth in the Group 1 Sistema Stakes and might have been sold to Australia since but for a small, expensive bone chip.

Now she is ready to race and Tiley, one of the shrewdest trainers in the game, might aim her at the Karaka Classic Mile on January 23 so tomorrow's 1400m is very much a kick-off point.

"I think she is probably the best horse in the race but she will improve a lot with this," the trainer tells the Weekend Herald.

"She can win on class but she has been away from the races for a long time and hasn't been pressured in her jump out or trial."

That trial was at Te Aroha on December 1 and Tiley thinks he saw the hardest horse for Play That Song to beat tomorrow in the same heat.

"Brando ran third in the heat we were in and he hit the line like a good horse.

"So he might be a bit too forward for us this week."

Tiley will also take honest mare Le Castile to the $100,000 Cal Isuzu after she got too far back in a sit-sprint Breeders Stakes at Pukekohe last start.

But she has drawn barrier 13 and faces a huge task to get close enough to threaten in a hot mares' field.