Racing: Steward clears wet Trentham

Juice, who had several close tussles with AJC Oaks winner Daffodil, is one of the strong Kiwi contingent for the Queensland Oaks. Photo / Greg Bowker.

Chief steward Reid Sanders yesterday afternoon gave Trentham a green light to continue with today's race meeting.

There had been serious concerns that the Trentham track might have been too waterlogged to race.

But Sanders felt the footing was safe after he walked the track in freezing conditions - particularly for a Queenslander.

"At the moment there's no surface water, which is one of the concerns," Sanders told the Weekend Herald.

"Sure, it's a heavy 11, but the footing seems pretty consistent."

Rain, heavy at times, was yesterday predicted for Wellington today, continuing into tomorrow morning.

"It depends on how much rain falls," said Sanders.

"Once they start racing hoof marks will fill up with water if it's raining and that could cause a visibility problem, but we'll have to deal with that when and if it happens.

"The weather forecasters have been wrong before."

There was talk yesterday morning of the meeting possibly being transferred to Palmerston North.

"The problem was that Palmerston is also heavy and their forecast is for rain as well. There was no real viable option to take the raceday to Awapuni.

"There is the possibility of putting the meeting back a day and running Sunday, but is that going to provide better conditions? Probably not."

Yesterday saw 10mm of rain fall at Trentham.

Kiwis' Oaks chances

The Aussies have renamed next week's A$300,000 Queensland Oaks the New Zealand Oaks part two.

Australian-trained fillies might currently hog the leaderboard at the top of the betting market, but that has much more to do with liabilities by bookmakers than the perception of each horse's actual chance.

Most bookmakers will tell you Australians would be happy to take short odds that the Oaks will be won by a Kiwi despite the betting market.

New Zealand filly Ekstreme is joint favourite at A$6 with the Aussies Purple and Miss Darcey.

Purple made her name by winning the group one Storm Queen Stakes in Sydney, but then finished seventh in the AJC Oaks behind Daffodil then third to New Zealanders Awesome Planet and Ekstreme in last week's Doomben Roses.

Miss Darcey won the group three Adrian Knox Stakes in Sydney, was third to Daffodil in the Oaks, third in a listed race on the Gold Coast and fifth in the Doomben Roses.

Think Money and Saint Minerva are ahead of the other Kiwis at A$8, but they have less formidable form.

Think Money was an ordinary seventh on the Storm Queen, before her second in the Oaks and fifth in the Doomben Roses and Saint Minerva won a 1200m Doomben maiden three starts back.

The New Zealanders are at lucrative odds. You can get A$11 on Awesome Planet, A$16 on Can't Keeper Down and Revoke, A$15 about Prix Du Sang and Juice's below-par effort in the Doomben Roses has seen her drift out to a remarkable A$26.

At her best Juice would just about be favourite here.

She matched it with Daffodil throughout the spring and early summer and showed with an impressive fresh-up run at Te Aroha that she has retained fitness under John Wheeler's innovative training regime.