KEY POINTS:
Under-rated Ruakaka mare Adorn can give Donna Logan a memorable consolation prize for drawing the short-straw in training duties today.
While partners Dean Logan and Chris Gibbs are in Queensland celebrating Jazella's black-type Gold Coast dead-heat on Saturday, Logan chases a sentimental victory in the R80 feature at
Dargaville.
Adorn was co-owned and bred by the late Northland racing icon Bob Tait, whose family, including Olympian son Blyth, still race the 5-year-old.
Her dam Philco gave Tait one of his biggest thrills in racing when taking the 1985 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha.
"Bob's wife said to me the other day that he never had much luck there [at Dargaville], so let's hope we can change it for him," Logan said yesterday.
Talented stayer Adorn hasn't had much fortune go her way either in her last two outings.
She finished jammed up on the fence at Ellerslie on April 12 and appeared even worse off last time out at Matamata in her first middle-distance attempt this campaign.
Rider Natasha Collett had her travelling sweetly, slightly worse than midfield, but the pair never saw daylight in behind Vanderbeel and Diego De La Vega.
They only beat two home but finished full of running.
Exciting apprentice James McDonald takes over the reins today and his 1kg claim drops Adorn to a lethal 55kg.
Last November the mare was beaten just a long neck carrying the same weight in the R90 Northland Cup, over the same course and distance.
"She's been a slow-maturing horse but she's come solid now," said Logan.
"She's been working well and I think she'll handle the track ."
Adorn killed a decent R70 line-up at Avondale last October on a slow surface by eight and a quarter lengths.
Form runner Worth Every Cent is the obvious danger, but is an unknown force on anything worse than a dead surface.
Sand Hawk could be the safer quinella choice.
He has proven wet-track form and his recent racing form suggests the step up to 2000m will be ideal.
If rain continues to downgrade the Dargaville surface, Logan says the rest of her team become marginal hopes.
Except, that is, for fresh-up hurdler Bold Trader in race five, the R70 2000m event.
He's sharper for his recent hurdle trial at Cambridge and will relish the heavy stuff.
On a drier surface, Logan says debutante Outtalimitz has shown her enough in training to suggest he's an each-way hope in the first.
"He's had three trials for three seconds and can really gallop this horse," said Logan.
"I just hope the ground's not too deep for him, but he got through it okay at Avondale [on a slow surface on April 29]."