Racing: Rankings for Guineas face final scrutiny

Sacred Park outlasts Role Model to win the Wellington Guineas at Trentham on Saturday. Photo / Thinkstock

The likely favourites for Riccarton clash in Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa today.

This afternoon's $70,000 Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa will throw more light on 3-year-old rankings than Saturday's Wellington Guineas and the Riccarton equivalent.

There is little doubt Wellington Guineas winner Sacred Park is a serious horse, but the overall form from that race can probably be largely ignored.

Saturday's Trentham footing was too bad to be true. The track looked better than it raced and times were diabolically slow for this time of year, worsened by the windy conditions which made it difficult for most horses to finish off their races.

The biggest cheer all day at Trentham came from Rory Hutchings as he went over the line on Sacred Park in the Guineas, his first winner after nearly two months on the sideline with a broken wrist.

Hutchings is not generally one to show emotion, but he fair leaped into the air on narrowly beating Role Model.

"Yeah, that gave me a real buzz," said the Waikato jockey.

Despite Sacred Park's good form, his stablemate Allez Eagle, down to run today, is generally regarded as superior and is joint favourite for the 2000 Guineas.

This makes Allez Eagle the horse to beat in this afternoon's star-studded line-up.

He faces in-form Cosmic Cube and high-class fillies Bounding, Soliloquy Stakes winner Spellbinder and newcomer Miss Foxwood.

This will be a cracker.

Bounding is unbeaten this preparation and has the experience on the board and Miss Foxwood, whom James McDonald has flown from Melbourne to ride, looks to have enormous potential.

Miss Foxwood won only a maiden race last start, but trainer Roger James is not nervous about throwing her in at the deep end.

She is coming from kindergarten compared with Bounding's stakes-winning university degrees, but there is a level of confidence in the camp.

"This is a giant step up, but she won't embarrass herself," says Roger James, who rarely overrates his horses.

James McDonald is delighted to be on her.

"I've been watching her progress from a distance and it's a long time since I've seen a horse win a maiden race with such an electric sprint as she showed."

Co-trainer Tony Pike is not super confident of a win by Allez Eagle, so stylish in winning on debut on this track.

"I'm surprised they've [TAB] opened him up as favourite. If I was framing this market I'd have the two fillies [Bounding, Spellbinder] as joint favourites ahead of him.

"He could be up against it at only his second start. It's a huge ask and I think he's vulnerable, especially from a wide gate. I'd have much preferred him to have drawn in further.

"If he gets back, which he might have to do, and runs on strongly into third behind the two good fillies, I'll be more than happy heading to Christchurch. If he can win, that makes him very special."

Pike does not put Sacred Park's Wellington Guineas win down to the rain-affected track.

"His work more recently suggests he's better on good footing. I think the reason he was able to get through that ground so well on Saturday is that he's such a big, strong bloke.

"That always helps on that type of track."