Racing: Tough ask but Strapped For Cash has hoof on till

Strapped For Cash (right) should find Trentham more to his liking than Avondale, where Amirar beat him home. Photo / Dean Purcell

As a winter galloper, Strapped For Cash has more punch than a Mel Gibson phone call.

But will that be enough to get him successfully through the Trentham mud under his massive 59kg topweight in tomorrow's $35,000 Winning Edge Parliamentary Handicap?

You wouldn't say no.

Strapped For Cash has one big advantage - the rain that is forecast for Wellington tomorrow. Drizzle tonight and rain tomorrow will keep the Trentham surface, already a heavy 11, from becoming puggy and holding, conditions that make it difficult for topweights.

Most of Strapped For Cash's wins have been in wet, loose conditions and given those circumstances the northerner deserves to start favourite.

Strapped For Cash could not pull back Amirar under the same weight as he has tomorrow at Avondale last Saturday week, but the track that day was holding and Amirar had a huge weight advantage.

The tough and experienced campaigners win at Trentham in the winter, and Strapped For Cash certainly qualifies to carry that banner.

Yet the main danger may be an emerging type who has no claims to experience - Auld Land Syne's career spans just four raceday starts to Strapped For Cash's 33.

He has shown sufficient potential in that quartet of runs to suggest he will measure up to the best on winter tracks, if not now then in the future.

He has just 53kg here and that 6kg, he receives from the topweight will seem like two concrete blocks when the finish draws near.

Auld Lang Syne has won three of those four races and looked more than a little unlucky not to remain unbeaten when a close second at Wanganui last start.

It needs to be said, though, that if he is successful it will not reflect well on the depth of our winter handicappers being beaten by a R80 galloper who had his first start only a couple of months ago.

Herman Munster, likewise, has won just three races, but displays similar talent.

One of the disturbing pointers to the lack of winter handicap talent is that two of the rivals in tomorrow's field are coming from hurdle races.

* Meanwhile, further north, experience counts for a lot in juvenile races and is going to make Upsala the horse to beat in tomorrow's $45,000 Westbury Stud Northland Breeders Stakes at Ruakaka.

With seven race starts behind him, Upsala is clearly the most experienced of the capacity field carded for the listed event.

He even has the toughness of a trip to Riccarton, where two starts back he finished a good second to high-class act Twilight Savings.

At his only subsequent run, Upsala overcame a wide barrier and a tough passage to finish fourth, less than two lengths from Smoulder, in the Great Northern Foal Stakes at Ellerslie, good form for a race such as this.

Lol looked impressive winning on debut at Avondale two weeks ago and she gives the impression she will continue toimprove.

Mygoodgrace was the medium of a massive punt on debut on this track last start and turned in a terrific effort after being slow away then wide to finish second.

She was beaten by stablemate Shamabelle, who had an almost identical run and finished slightly more powerfully.

Given that it was Shamabelle's fifth race start, it is reasonable to suspect there is slightly more improvement in Mygoodgrace.

There is likely to be little between them again.