Racing: Trobriand can solve stable puzzle

Trobriand poses a puzzle at Ruakākā tomorrow. Photo / Trish Dunell

The first Te Akau test of the black-type season comes courtesy of Trobriand in tomorrow’s $100,000 Northland Breeders Stakes.

Te Akau’s huge racing operation has seen senior trainer Mark Walker joined by Sam Bergerson in partnership after the Walker’s record-setting 203-win domestic tally last season.

With Te Akau setting up a Victorian satellite stable this season that number is unlikely to be threatened as the Australian stable will reduce their domestic firepower, with a mare such as Imperatriz who dominated our Group 1 sprints last season heading straight to Australia without racing here this spring.

“She is really well and will gallop with Legarto tomorrow before heading to the black-type trials at Taupō and then start back racing in Victoria on September 9,” says Walker.

But the stable will still have enormous firepower at home and their staggered resumptions over the next two months pose a puzzle summed up by Trobriand at Ruakākā tomorrow.

Trobriand was an early season juvenile star last term and started favourite in the Karaka Million, in which he finished third.

He resumes tomorrow off the back of only one trial and can’t be at his peak for the Group 3 over 1200m in which he meets a promising three-year-old in Crocetti, who thrashed a similar field minus Trobriand last start.

So does a fitter Crocetti, on a track he is proven on, beat a fresh-up Trobriand who is going to improve but has a superior record?

“It is a tough one because he can’t be at his best this week,” says Walker of Trobriand. “He has only had one trial and then a strong track gallop at Te Rapa last weekend but clearly he will improve with this run, although the No 1 barrier helps.”

Walker is also a fan of Crocetti, who is unbeaten in two starts.

“He was very good last start and even when he won his maiden at Pukekohe last season I remember being impressed by him that day when he beat one of ours.

“So they both might be good horses and [Crocetti’s] fitness could be a telling factor.”

Another crucial factor could be the start and whether Crocetti has the early speed to cross Trobriand then dictate the tempo of the race.

If he does, he becomes the horse to beat as there looks to be little pressure in the race and Trobriand will need to be a serious three-year-old to sit behind Crocetti and run past him in a dash up the straight.

Reverse those roles and put Crocetti outside a leading Trobriand and he then needs to be better or fitter than a horse who has already won at Group 2 level, which would stamp Crocetti as the real deal.