KEY POINTS:
TAB bookies hate those moments when they open up the fixed odds markets on the weekend's racing features.
Yesterday proved why.
The bookmakers quickly found out not everyone feels Rough Odds is a good thing in the $60,000 Oceanz Seafood Northland Breeders Stakes at Ruakaka tomorrow.
Almost as
soon as the market opened yesterday afternoon for that race one punter claimed the TAB for $33,000 to $3000 about Silk Spur.
The punter clearly liked the $11 price.
The TAB left Rough Odds' price at the opening quote of $2.60, but sliced Silk Spur back to $9.
Tomorrow's race is the third leg of a 2-year-old Ruakaka triple crown. Rough Odds won both the first two legs and in the second of them he scored by a nose with a short neck back to Silk Spur.
Silk Spur covered a considerable amount of extra ground after starting from the outside gate.
Rough Odds only just got home, but to be fair to him he was taken on in front for much of the way and had to be brave to pull punters through.
The key to this race is the handicap - and this clearly appealed to yesterday's punter.
The middle leg of the treble was a handicap and this time under stakes conditions the race is run at set weights.
Rough Odds comes down from 58kg to 56kg and Silk Spur drops from 58kg to 54.5kg - a 1.5kg swing in Silk Spur's favour.
And the difference is not lost on Rough Odds' trainer Craig Ritchie.
"Silk Spur is easily the weight horse for the race and is probably the horse to beat along with Jasminka."
Immediately after the last-start win Ritchie was concerned and disappointed his horse had to work so hard for victory in view of tomorrow's race coming up.
He is now over that concern, but it lasted a week. "He really felt that last race," he said yesterday.
"He didn't get home until 8.30pm that night because of the Auckland traffic and when I turned the lights on at the stables the next morning, not only did he not get up, he never even thought about getting up.
"It took a week for him to come back to me, but I'm happy he's in the right condition again.
"His work on Saturday morning was good and his work Tuesday was even better - he's one tough horse."
Rough Odds has again drawn the better of the pair, but the advantage may not be great. He goes from No 2 of eight runners to No 8 of 14 acceptors and Silk Spur, previously the outside of eight runners, is this time No 10 of the 14.
It means Rough Odds will probably have to work if he wants to lead again.
The last gallant effort was Silk Spur's first start back from a break, which followed her running in stakes class at Ellerslie on January 1 and in the $1m Karaka Million - both considerably tougher class than this.
Craig Ritchie has plenty of respect for Jasminka, trained by his brother Shaune.
The filly won nicely at Ellerslie last time at only her second race start, finishing well from the back after drifting early. a similiar finishing effort would put her right in the finish of this race.
Pocket Diary won well enough in rain-affected ground at Te Rapa last start to be accorded a chance. Onesong has only been unplaced once in five starts and can be prominent for a long way.
Discretion, another last-start winner, has been withdrawn. He is apparently under offer.