KEY POINTS:
Trainers with runners in Saturday's A$3.5 million ($4.2 million) Golden Slipper will be searching the Sydney skies for the predicted showers in the countdown to the world's richest juvenile race on Saturday.
But they'll be looking no harder than Mark Walker, who wants nothing but fine weather as
Princess Coup prepares for her clash with Sydney mare Tuesday Joy in the A$2 million BMW on the same Rosehill card.
Winning the Slipper is the quick road to millions of dollars for either a colt or a filly, but make no mistake, the BMW is worth considerably more than the stakemoney to the connections of Princess Coup.
A group one weight-for-age victory in Australia is every New Zealand broodmare owner's dream and it's fair to say the Princess Coup camp have missed their luck badly in the Mackinnon Stakes in the spring and again in the Australian Cup.
Pilot error cost Princess Coup dearly in both races and this is their last chance, at least for this campaign.
Many Australians are under the impression Princess Coup is at home in wet footing after they saw vision of her winning the Oaks at Trentham a little more than a year ago in almost a rain storm.
But despite that visual effect, the track was still rated good.
Rosehill yesterday was rated on the worse side of dead and the Sydney forecast is for showers today, tomorrow and Saturday.
Australian tracks generally dry faster than ours and if there are fewer showers than expected, the footing might still be reasonable by Saturday.
Wet tracks negate class and, as a back runner, Princess Coup's job would be made that much harder having to work strenuously to pick up the leaders from the 600m. She has a devastating sprint and needs good footing to maximise it.
Yesterday, Tuesday Joy was rated the $2.80 BMW favourite just ahead of Princess Coup on $3. Sirmione is at $4.50 and the remainder are considered out of the market, headed by former Kiwi The Fuzz on $13.
It has surprised a few that John Wheeler has stayed with Shane Dye for Pentathon in the BMW despite the ex-Hong Kong jockey's shocking luck on the horse in last week's Manion Cup where Pentathon zig-zagged back and forth behind a wall of horses in the closing stages, missing a place.
Many Sydney bookmaking outlets reacted by trimming his BMW odds, but Melbourne's Domebet has the New Zealand stayer at $26.
Pentathon is much shorter for the Sydney Cup at $10 fourth favourite behind Red Lord, The Fuzz and No Wine No Song.
At home, rain right across the North Island will have a major affect on both Hawkes Bay Cup day at Hastings on Saturday and the northern meeting at Tauranga.
The Tauranga track was rated at 4.9 and heavy yesterday morning with little drying yesterday and further rain predicted for today.
The Hastings forecast is similar. The track there was 4.4 and slow and if the rain arrives the feature Hawkes Bay Cup will be badly affected.