Racing: Stable in transtasman switch

Wessex has won twice on heavy tracks, which will be the case at Rotorua tomorrow. Photo / Supplied

The realities of operating a transtasman stable will hit home for Andrew Forsman tomorrow.

The Cambridge trainer is no stranger to having horses racing in two countries on the same day, having had great success in Victoria and Sydney in recent years while maintaining his stable at home.

Until recently that transtasman focus has been mainly during the spring and autumn carnivals. But tomorrow he has horses at Rotorua and Mr Mojo Risin (R2, No 3) racing from his new Macedon stable.

Forsman plans to have around 10 horses trained at that Victorian stable in the spring as well as his main New Zealand operation, and got a preview of how that life will look when he travelled to Victoria to oversee the stable there for a few days.

“I have got four horses at Macedon Lodge and things are settling in well,” Forsman said. “It is a great facility and I am looking forward to having a good team there in the spring as well as the main barn back home.”

Mr Mojo Risin was impressive winning at Avondale last start and is in a A$150,000 race tomorrow, with Forsman saying he is somewhat surprised to still be training the three-year-old.

“He is a black type three-year-old by Deep Field who won like a good horse last start so I am surprised he hasn’t been sold,” he says.

“But he can come over here to Australia and race for good money and should do a job over here.”

Closer to home, Forsman has Wessex and Oneroa in the Group 3 Rotorua Stakes, one of the final chances for the girls to get black-type for the season, and both are realistic chances.

Wessex looked like pulling off one of the upsets of the season two starts ago when she led Legarto by around eight lengths at the top of the Pukekohe straight in the Eight Carat Classic on Boxing Day, only to be run down late into third.

She then raced in the Karaka Classic Mile and while it would seem a strange time of the season for her to be reappearing, fresh-up against older mares on a heavy track, she has won twice on heavy tracks before and raced well in stakes races last winter.

“She will handle a heavy track but the question is the same for her as most of these horses, will she handle the Rotorua heavy, which can be quite different,” says Forsman. “I think she will be fine, she likes to go forward and she has trialled well so she can go a big race even though a few of those older mares will be more seasoned.”

Oneroa is also a proven heavy track performer who also likes to go forward but for a huge field almost every runner has significant heavy track form so it could come down to who handles Rotorua, with the talented Synchronize and one-race winner Impervu the only past Arawa Park winners.

Synchronize is listed as having won on a heavy track but it was more like soft the day she left maidens in better than even time for 1050m, and her last-start battling effort in the mud would suggest it is hardly her forte.

Forsman also has handy three-year-old Leedox in a strong race two tomorrow while Sporting Chance in race four was a good fresh-up second on a heavy track last start and looks to be in the right race.