Southland owner-trainers the Dennis brothers have a bigger picture in mind when opting for one more throw of the dice with The Bishop at Ashburton today.
In past years, The Bishop would be out spelling at this stage of the winter and that was again to be the case untilhe won the Goodeve Waimate Cup (2200m) at Oamaru early last month.
"We got him home and thought about it and decided to keep him going for a few more weeks for this one," said Tony Dennis, referring to the $25,000 Keith Wild & Dave Redmond Potato Growers Open 2100.
"We figured if we kept him going for an extra month we could give him three or four weeks out and still get him up for the New Zealand Cup. When they're getting old you don't want to leave them out long.
"That's the plan anyway, and, though he's coming up 9, he didn't start racing until he was 4. We'd like the chance to run him at two miles. He's typical of the Yamanin Vitals, he just keeps going and I don't think he'd have any trouble getting the distance in the New Zealand Cup."
The Bishop won last February's Invercargill Gold Cup (2600m) after being third in the same race a year earlier and he was fourth in the 2500m NZI Great Autumn Handicap at Riccarton three starts ago.
The Bishop had been the regular ride of David Walsh after they combined to win the Invercargill Gold Cup, but Walsh elected to ride Motorbike Mike in the Waimate Cup so the Dennis brothers made use of the 2kg claim of apprentice jockey Racha Cuneen.
Motorbike Mike wound up chasing The Bishop home and the Dennis brothers have decided to be loyal to Cuneen today despite it being a non-claiming race.
The Bishop has the topweight of 59kg, 5kg above the minimum in the nine-horse field, which includes Belle D'Or (57.5) and the lightweights Sir Amron, Lakota, Vaporetto and Delacroix. NZ Racing Desk
