Racing: Tarzino trio set to skip next Hastings Group 1 race

Skew Wiff is unlikely to be returning to Hastings. Photo / Race Images

New Zealand’s next two Group 1 races are changing dramatically as our elite gallopers start to split ranks sooner than expected.

That is likely to see star mares Skew Wiff and Pennyweka miss the rest of the Hawke’s Bay carnival, while three of the first four home in last Saturday’s Tarzino Trophy are unlikely to return for the Arrowfield Stakes on September 30.

The trainers of many of our best gallopers have had a few days to digest the Tarzino, in which Skew Wiff beat Dragon Leap, Legarto and Spring Tide, and two of those are already certain to miss the step up to 1600m in the Arrowfield back at Hastings.

The trainers of both Dragon Leap and Spring Tide have confirmed they are out of the $400,000 mile, with Dragon Leap already in the paddock to freshen up for the summer Group1 sprints, while Spring Tide will be sticking to shorter trips, too, with 1300m and 1400m options on the next two days of the carnival.

The team behind Skew Wiff were meeting last night and owner Mark Chittick says he will be led by trainer Mark Walker’s advice to stick to shorter trips just now rather than step up to 1600m for the Arrowfield.

“So she could go to Melbourne for a mares’ race over 1400m [Rose Of Kingston, October 7] and then I think we all agree the Golden Eagle could be a really good target if she’s going well,” said Walker. “That’s what I will be suggesting to Mark [Chittick] but of course the final decision is his.”

The trainers of Pier, Aromatic, Sharp ‘N’ Smart and La Crique all confirmed to the Herald they intend, horse health and weather playing its part, to be back at Hastings for the Arrowfield. But Brando will miss the race to head to an easier Te Rapa target, while Lickety Split, who tailed off in the Tarzino, has been retired and will visit first-season pin-up stallion Anamoe, her job on the racetrack more than done as a Group1-winning juvenile who ran third in the 1000 Guineas at Caulfield.

All that movement from the Tarzino contenders could see Legarto end up as short as $2 for the Arrowfield by today.

Her co-trainer Ken Kelso says the Australian Guineas winner has come through her slightly luckless third in the Tarzino well and she is being aimed at the Arrowfield before another possible clash with Skew Wiff in the Golden Eagle, worth A$10 million at Rosehill on November 4.

Outstanding mare Prowess, who is down to trial before the races at Taupō on Friday, remains in the Arrowfield entries but is doubtful and is instead being aimed at the Breeders’ Stakes at Hawera on October 7.

The other huge name among the 4-year-old mares to have a surprise change of direction is dual Oaks winner Pennyweka. She was understandably outpaced in the Tarzino but was expected to relish the step up to 2040m in the Livamol Classic on October 14 but she will instead head to Australia early.

“We are keen to get her over to Australia, so she definitely won’t be back there [Hastings] for either the second or third days,” says trainer Jim Wallace. “She won’t be going to either the Caulfield or Melbourne Cups, she will have other aims in Australia, but she won’t have a huge spring.”

Pennyweka, who won NZ Stayer of the Year on Sunday night, had been the long-term favourite for the Livamol, which many of the Tarzino contenders won’t be aimed at, but the Livamol should see defending champion Mustang Valley rejoining the weight-for-age ranks as well as possibly Campionessa.