Savaglee’s return delayed as Te Rapa favoured over Ellerslie super sprint

Savaglee hasn't raced this season and his return has now been delayed another fortnight. Photo / Kenton Wright

Outstanding four-year-old Savaglee will be allowed to miss next week’s $700,000 Sistema Railway at Ellerslie’s Karaka Millions meeting.

It is not that anything is amiss with last season’s Three-Year-Old of the Year, but trainer Pam Gerard and his connections think the stallion will be better suited by resuming the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa two weeks later.

Savaglee hasn’t raced since finishing second in the Australian Guineas at Flemington last March and Gerard has been very open about the fact the Railway on Saturday week was only an option and never his main aim.

He trialed well at Ellerslie when third in an open catchweight on Sunday, but Gerard believes he will be better with another trial before kicking off his new campaign at Te Rapa on February 7.

“We were happy with his trial, but fresh up into a Group 1 with only one trial is a big ask,” she told the Herald.

“We think two trials will have him fitter for the BCD Sprint and 1400m is more his trip.

“So he will trial again at Matamata next Wednesday, then head to Te Rapa.”


While having last season’s 2000 Guineas winner in the Railway next week would have been a nice bonus, the Group 1 loses little with his withdrawal as he was rated a $10 chance in what will be a stacked field.

The Railway is headed by Australian sprinters Jigsaw and Arkansaw Kid along with Crocetti and Alabama Lass, who quinellaed the Railway last year, and two-time Group 1 winner Grail Seeker.

Several of those will back up in the BCD Sprint along with Savaglee, defending champion Here To Shock and home track hero First Five in what will be one of the races of the season.

Safely through the BCD Sprint, Savaglee will return to Melbourne with his first target likely to be the Futurity Stakes over 1400m at Caulfield on February 21.

“All going well, we can then look at the All-Star Mile at Flemington on March 7,” Gerard said.

Both the Futurity and All-Star Mile give Savaglee chances at an all-important Australian Group 1 victory to seal his commercial stallion value on both sides of the Tasman.

While Savaglee won’t be heading to Ellerslie next week, his two star three-year-old stablemates Affirmative Action and Romanoff will be there on Thursday morning as they prepare for the $1.5 million Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old on Saturday week.

They will be part of a team of talented horses who gallop on the course proper on Thursday as part of their preparations for next week’s mammoth twilight meeting.

“Affirmative Action will gallop with one of Te Akau’s horses, but Romanoff won’t need much and will probably just do some quiet work by himself to have a look around Ellerslie,” Gerard said.

Even more of the Karaka Millions night favourites will be at Ellerslie for course proper track work next Tuesday, including many of the Australian-trained horses starting at the meeting four days later.

* Favourite Legarto will start from barrier 2 in the $500,000 Harcourts Thorndon Mile at Trentham on Saturday.

The high-class Matamata mare will carry 58kg in the 1600m, which has been downgraded to a Group 2, and while she will be conceding at least 3.5kg to her rivals, she has fared better in the draws than second favourite Queen Zou, who has drawn barrier 12.

Saturday’s meeting also hosts the $200,000 NZB Desert Gold Stakes and the $150,000 Totara Lodge Trentham Stakes, which has attracted a strong field of stayers, many using it as their final lead-up to the Wellington Cup on January 31.

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.