Sassy Lass and Lux Libertas aim for victory amid tough Counties Cup competition

Waitak.

It may feel like the start of the summer of racing at Pukekohe today but with that buzz comes reality.

The reality it just got harder to win a race.

The huge fields with genuine depth on show at the Counties Cup meeting will be replicated over much of the next four months, with black type racing almost every weekend until April.

For trainers like Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott that means the chance to aim stable star Waitak or mares Karman Line, Sassy Lass and Lux Libertas at serious races but it also means elite opposition.

“Scotty and I were saying today how hard it is going to be to win a race this weekend,” says O’Sullivan.

“There are some excellent races but very even fields, which is good for racing but it makes it hard to be confident.” A perfect example is today’s Haunui Farm Counties Bowl, with the O’Sullivan/Scott team having two high class horses in Waitak, who won the G1 Railway here, and G3 winner Karman Line yet they are rated $10 and $15 chances.

“It won’t be easy for them with some real speedsters like Babylon Berlin and Crocetti in there,” says O’Sullivan.

“I think the key for Waitak is not getting too far back and at least being close enough to run at them in the straight.

“Karman Line gets her chance to step up to this grade but it won’t be easy for her either so like a lot of horses this summer they will win the right race when they get the right run.”

The same could apply to Sassy Lass (R8, No.13), the stable rep in today’s $170,000 TAB Counties Cup.

She has emerged as a promising stayer and the stable considered taking her to last Saturday’s New Zealand Cup but they decided a Cups campaign closer to home may be less taxing and the most logiocal next step.

“I actually think the ideal race for her might be the Waikato Cup in a couple of weeks but that doesn’t mean she won’t go well this week,” says O’Sullivan.

Sassy Lass has been very proficient on wet tracks but was still more than capable on a firmer surface at Hastings two starts ago but she finds herself lumped in with the majority of the field on 53kgs as topweight No Compromise has compressed the weights of those down in the handicaps.

So Sassy Lass is a rating 80 horse carrying 53kgs while a rating 88 mare in Terra Mitica is carrying the same weight whereas usually their would be a 4kgs swing in Sassy Lass’s favour.

With No Compromise compressing those weights so much because he is a rating 102 horse carrying the 60kg topweight, the biggest winner has been Wolfgang who only carries 54kgs and gets Michael McNab in the saddle.

He was very brave in two runs in Australia before finishing second to El Vencedor in the weight-for-age Balmerino Stakes at Ellerslie last start so is the obvious one to beat from barrier 4 today, even if his $3.20 price is getting short in a large field.

The O’Sullivan/Scott team have another up-and-coming mare in today’s $225,000 Dunstan Horsefeeeds Breeders Stakes in Lux Libertas (R9, No.11) as well as recent stable addition in Kelly Coe.

“Kelly Coe has been working well so she could pick up a nice race somewhere while this is a really good test for Lux Libertas stepping into the group company.”

Even from her wide draw La Crique remains the horse to beat in the Breeders, finishing a strong second fresh up to Wild Night last start.

Wild Night has crossed the Tasman to contest today’s A$500,000 Cranbourne Cup for which he is favourite with Blake Shinn in the saddle.

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.