Staying supremos to do battle in confusingly even Auckland Cup

Trav is back to defend his Auckland Cup title at Ellerslie tomorrow. Photo / Kenton Wright

The Auckland Cup may be one of the more confusing punting races of the entire season but one variable punters don’t have to worry about are the trainers.

No New Zealand race in years or maybe even decades has been so loaded with 3200m-winning trainers – and incredibly, nearly half of tomorrow’s field are trained by stables who have previously won an Auckland Cup.

That was a gimme for Raymond Connors and the Shaune Ritchie/Colm Murray stables, as they have the last two Auckland Cup winners in Trav and Mahrajaan returning for tomorrow’s $600,000 Cup at Ellerslie.

And nobody will be surprised that Kevin Myers, who has Just Charlie entered, has trained an Auckland Cup winner with Titch in 2011.

But things then get far more diverse and would make for some daunting racing-trivia-night questions.

Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, who have Brayden Star as favourite tomorrow, may be based in Victoria these days but they trained Sangster to win this race in 2013, while Bill Thurlow, who has Whangaehu starting tomorrow, prepared Glory Days to win in 2019.

Bruce Wallace, who co-trains Son Of Sun and Trust In You, won the Cup way back in 2000 with Able Master, while plenty of punters will have also forgotten Khan Hunter’s trainer Antony Fuller won an Auckland Cup far more recently with Roger That in 2020.

Lisa Latta brings this season’s Wellington Cup upsetter Manzor Blue north to the track where she won the Cup three years ago with Platinum Invador.

And while not everybody has snared an Auckland Cup, the three Australian visitors for tomorrow’s 3200m have some serious staying stables in their corner.

Interpretation is trained by Ciaron Maher, who has pretty much won everything that matters, including the greatest of the 3200m cups, the Melbourne Cup, with Gold Trip in 2022.

Kris Lees may not send horses to New Zealand very often but he has Age Of Sail in tomorrow and has 3200m form, having won the Sydney Cup with County Tyrone in 2006.

Another Australian trainer, Henry Dwyer, who trains Paradise Storm, may not have a major 3200m cup win next to his name but he has trained a Group 1 winner at Royal Ascot in Asfoora, less than 12 months after he trained Brungle Bertie to win the Australian Grand National Steeplechase.

So you can take it for granted he knows how to both travel a horse and win a major staying race.

Who will get their name inscribed on the side of the Auckland Cup tomorrow? That is anybody’s guess in one of the hardest punting races of the season.

But at least you know you money is in good hands.

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.