Return To Conquer was unbeaten in four starts here last season. Photo / Kenton Wright
Last season’s superstar colt Return To Conquer won’t race again this year.
The Group 1 winner, who was unbeaten in four starts here, has been sidelined with a slight issue after his first Australian appearance in a jump out at Cranbourne two weeks ago.
Trainer Mark Walker, who is mostly based in Cranbourne these days, said the injury wasn’t serious but has tipped the scales against Return To Conquer competing in spring.
“He did something to himself in his jump out and being such a valuable colt we aren’t going to take any chances with him,” Walker told the Herald.
“We could actually race him again this year if we wanted to but he is here to get an Australian Group 1 to add to his stallion credentials and with this issue putting him back even a few weeks he won’t be ready for the races we wanted to aim him at.
“They are all finished by November and because he won’t be ready to win a Group 1 by then we will put him aside until next year.”
Return To Conquer looked New Zealand’s most talented juvenile last season and won the Group 1 Sistema Stakes at Ellerslie in March.
Being a Group 1-winning juvenile son of Snitzel means he already has commercial stallion worth and the only box he needs to tick now is a major Australian win.
That means Walker and syndication giants Te Akau will also resist any temptation to head north to the Magic Millions carnival in January because while Return To Conquer could race for huge money there, those races don’t carry Group 1 status.
But all going well the colt should be back racing mid-summer.
As disappointing as the news is, the reality of Return To Conquer’s career is simple: if he wins any Group 1 in Australia in the next 18 months, preferably this season, he is worth a fortune.
But, to that end, this spring is still an opportunity taken away.
The news is much better for the two other huge names of New Zealand racing last season, who joined Te Akau’s Cranbourne barn around the same time as Return To Conquer.
La Dorada will go head-to-head with Return To Conquer for New Zealand juvenile of the year at the sport’s annual awards in Hamilton on September 7 but has a bigger assignment at The Valley the day before.
Walker and assistant trainer Ben Gleeson are setting last season’s Karaka Millions winner for the A$750,000 ($822,000) Moir Stakes on September 6 in which she will clash with Matamata mare Alabama Lass.
“She has easier 3-year-old options but they would mean carrying 59kg fresh up, whereas she will carry only 50kg over 1000m in the Moir.”
Is La Dorada good enough to win a Group 1 weight-for-age sprint?
“Taking a line through [stablemate] Bellatrix Star, who won a good Group 2 race in the Schillaci last October, I’d say La Dorada can be very competitive in the Moir,” said Walker.
It has been smooth Australian sailing so far for arguably Te Akau and Walker’s best horse, NZB Kiwi and Karaka Millions 3-Year-Old winner Damask Rose.
“She has come up well and will resume in the Cockram Stakes at Caulfield on August 30,” said Walker.
“Then, all going well, she will go through the Sir Rupert Clarke [Caulfield, September 20] and the Toorak [Caulfield, October 11] on her way to the Golden Eagle.”
The A$10 million Golden Eagle on November 1 has been moved from Rosehill to Randwick and Walker said that could be a positive for Damask Rose.
“It is still a long way off yet and of course things have to go right to get there as a winning chance, but you would think with the big field, the bigger Randwick track will actually suit her better.”
There is also promising news around Bellatrix Star, who was sensational last spring and finished second to Switzerland in the A$2m Coolmore at Flemington, one of the hottest 3-year-old races of the year.
“She suffered a bad neck injury in January when she flipped over coming back from a pool session and initially we thought she might not race again,” said Walker.
“But she is back now and there is no sign of where the injury was so we are hopeful she will be back racing around November.”
Meanwhile, one of the most expensive horses in New Zealand, the Te Akau-purchased Avantaggia looked an early race winner with a dominant win at the Avondale trials yesterday.
The 3-year-old daughter of Wootton Bassett and Avantage cost A$2.1m as a yearling and beat subsequent seven-length winner Cream Tart in her previous trial in April.
She looked sharp in yesterday’s trial and should be racing soon.
Avantaggia is the $12 fourth favourite for the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton, which has been moved from New Zealand Cup day to the first day of Cup week on November 8.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.