Racing: Two Illicit needs the prep to gain pep

Two Illicit returns after a short break in the $40,000 Plate at Tauranga tomorrow. Photo / Race Images

There is no doubting who is the best horse racing at Tauranga tomorrow, but there is plenty of doubt over her winning chances.

Group 1-winning mare Two Illicit returns after a short break in the $40,000 Plate at a meeting set to run on a heavy track.

Those conditions are anything but ideal for the Captain Cook Stakes winner but co-trainer Robert Wellwood says Two Illicit should still take her place.

"She really needs this race if she is going to start in the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes, which is a Group 1, in a few weeks," says Wellwood.

"So while we would love her to win, she is heading there because she needs the prep run to be ready for 1600m next up.

"She is well and we are really happy with her but we are being realistic about Saturday."

A quick scan of Two Illicit's wet-track form may tempt some punters to back her as she won fresh-up over 1400m at Ellerslie in September 2020 but that was on a slow9 in a subsequent poor form race and thanks to a great Leith Innes ride.

"I think what she faces this Saturday is a lot tougher and she has to carry the 62kg topweight," says Wellwood. "So as long as she races well we will be happy. She is a class horse and very genuine so by no means do we expect her to throw the towel in if she isn't handling it but we would be genuinely surprised if she won."

That leaves punters in the predicament of trying to find who else to back to beat Two Illicit, and the answer to that and maybe all of tomorrow's races could be as simple as stick with the heavy-track form.

Wellwood and training partner Roger James don't have those same wet weather worries with their other topweight tomorrow in Hypnos in the $110,000 Japan Trophy feature race.

The high-class miler has been left as the sole topweight after the scratching of Mali Ston and has won on heavy, soft but also up to good3 tracks, as he did last start in the Group 3 Taranaki Cup.

"He is a good horse who turns up and races well almost every time so he has to be chance," says Wellwood.

"So he will be hard to beat, I suppose a bit will depend on just how heavy it gets and who handles it the best."

One of the intriguing horses in the race is former Australian galloper Order Again, who will make his New Zealand debut for new trainer Ben Foote at start 44.

He has good wet track and winter form in Australia and was a strong second at the Ellerslie trials last week, so could come in for some support from punters.