Racing: Vonusti earns trip to Trentham

There's little point relying on the training performances of the promising Vonusti to gauge his raceday prospects.

Vonusti racked up his seventh win from 17 starts when easily winning a $25,000 restricted open handicap over 1400m at Tauranga on Saturday but one of his training gallops beforehand was far from inspiring.

Cambridge trainer Tim Carter said Vonusti was beaten about 10 lengths by a maiden in trackwork at his local track in preparation for the race.

Carter's wife and training partner Margaret is Vonusti's regular trackwork rider but she did not express any concern after the gallop, Tim Carter said.

"She said that's just Vonusti.

"He's just so laidback. You can't get a line on him in training."

Vonusti had only seven rivals on Saturday but there were some handy types among them and, despite not having raced for nearly two months, he was a hot $1.90 favourite.

Rider Noel Harris settled the Ustinov 5-year-old gelding three back on the fence and after being angled into the clear in the straight he easily ranged up to the leaders with 200m to run.

From there Vonusti strode clear to score by 2 lengths and put himself into contention for the group one $1 million Telegraph Handicap at Trentham, Wellington, on January 23.

The 1200m distance of the Telegraph is a little short of what would be preferred for Vonusti but Carter is keen to try his luck. The Telegraph is often a hard-run race and Carter said it can equate to a 1400m race. "They say 1200m at Trentham is like 1400m anywhere else. It's worth a million dollars. If he makes the field you might as well have a go at it."

Vonusti has been the target for a number of bloodstock agents, with offers of up to $400,000 but none has been able to complete a deal. A Sydney trainer once made the trip to New Zealand to view the horse, among others, but Carter said nothing more was heard.

Carter wondered if the Sydney trainer was unimpressed by the horse's ordinary looks and moderate size.

Earlier on the programme a likely prospect for the $2.2 million New Zealand Derby (2400m) in March emerged when the Australian-bred Falhidi ran away with victory in a 1400m maiden.

Falhidi, a Falbrav gelding having his first start, was ridden hard by Opie Bosson from an inside barrier to reach the lead.

At the top of the straight, he had edged ahead but in the run to the post came right away to score by 5 lengths as a $4.70 second favourite.

Falhidi, bought for A$19,000 as a weanling at a Queensland sale on the Gold Coast in 2007, is trained at Matamata by Andrew Scott, who said Bosson was urged to make use of an inside draw.

"We were pretty urgent to lead today. He's a bit of a big, green horse and I said to Opie to be really strong out of the barrier and really get him going," Scott said.

"He's got a high cruising speed and he's a really promising staying horse. He's only going to keep on improving - he's got a big future."

- NZPA