Racing: Shaw’s heavenly result

For the last week or so Eastern Bay of Plenty owner-trainer Ian Shaw had been living with a A$27,500 nightmare hanging over his head.

That's the Brisbane Cup late fee Shaw was convinced he would need to scrape up to resurrect his dreams of a raid with From Heaven on the A$500,000 feature on June 13.

Shaw had emailed his nomination for his Wellington Cup placegetter to an address on the Queensland racing web page.

But he got a cryptic response a day after deadline telling him he needed to go through a Melbourne bureau instead.

Until the Herald rang to confirm that From Heaven was in fact among the 113 early Eagle Farm entries after all, the semi-retired Matata vet was bracing himself for the worst.

"He's a real two-miler through and through, but the only way I could have afforded to possibly take him if I'd missed the deadline was if he wins the Rotorua Cup in his next run," said a relieved Shaw.

While hoping for a bold run from From Heaven back in progressive grade at Tauranga today, Shaw isn't demanding a win to confirm a Brisbane trip.

Shaw suspects From Heaven still needs the run after piling on 30kg of condition during a late summer spell.

He only needs to watch the well-worn Wellington Cup video tape, however, to know From Heaven has the 3200m motor when fully fit.

Ironically, Shaw paid a $5000 late fee to sneak From Heaven into the group one cup field that day, only to be robbed of a bigger payback by a shocking trip.

"If he'd got the run Zabeat and Gorgeous George had, it would have been a different story altogether," said Shaw.

From Heaven meets nothing of their class today, but Shaw isn't sure his two runs back, the latest in the Hawkes Bay Cup on April 23, have him back in winning trim.

"It's really hard to get a line on him at Te Teko. There are only 10 horses in work here and I can't really gallop him too long.

"My trackwork rider Peter O'Connor does a wonderful job but he's about 72kg.

"A 3kg from apprentice Chad Ormsby, however, is a huge assist, as would be the forecasted rain if enough arrives in time for the 2170m event at 3pm."

From Heaven only beat five home at Hastings but he was making ground stylishly against the open graders until running out of steam.