Steve and Amanda Telfer bring six starters to Alexandra Park race

It is bring-your-own-sulky night at Alexandra Park tonight.

Not for everybody, mind you, just some of the drivers partnering the Team Telfer horses in Race 5 on tonight’s card, when the leading northern stable has six starters in the same race.

It is not the first time the brother and sister training team of Steve and Amanda Telfer have had six starters in a race before, and they originally had eight entered for tonight’s Sires’ Stakes heat but had to scratch two with minor issues.

Had all eight started, it would have equalled the modern-day New Zealand harness record held by the All Stars, who had all eight starters in a race at Addington on August 7, 2020.

But six juvenile fillies in a Sires’ Stakes heat is still a show of strength that comes with some obvious logistical challenges.

“We only have four race sulkies, so I will have to have to borrow two,” laughs Steve Telfer.

“A couple of our outside drivers will be bringing their sulkies to the races for horses they train so they can use them but it is going to make for a pretty busy time before the race, getting them all geared up and everything in place.”

Telfer says the assault is a genuine one as all the juveniles fillies have earned the right to be in the Sires’ Stakes heat.

It is also just reward for the huge outlay for Stonewall Stud founder Steve Stockman, who has purchased the best bloodlines available at the sales and bred others in tonight’s race.

“They are all fillies who are going to make it, but obviously there are levels of experience and ability at this stage,” says Telfer.

The most dazzling of them so far is Always B Misty, who overcame an early gallop last start to win in stunning style, and with the scratchings moves into two on the second line.

“She keeps getting better, and her chances have improved now with our other two coming out and bringing her in closer to the markers.

“We have Music Mistress up from the South Island, and she has also looked very good but she might be dictated to by what I’m Sandra Dee, whom she follows out, does at the start.

“She has been working really well and if she trails she can win, but I am not sure she will get that type of run.”
Always B Magic is the next ranked of the Telfer troops but is still learning and races in a fixed hood to keep her calm, with Telfer suggesting when she changes to a removable hood, that will be a good pointer for punters.

Big numbers are nothing new to the stable, as they trained a career-best five winners at Alexandra Park last Friday night and have multiple winning chances tonight.

J T Boe (Race 2) has a wide draw to overcome but can still win, while Captains Secret is a smart maiden in Race 3 but meets some handy types headed by The Jolly Roger.

Telfer rates Secrets Abound (No 9) the better of their two hopes in a strong Race 4, while Twista and Akatea both contest the main pace.

“Our two are going well, but it is a very good field and horses like Always A Porsche and Better Knuckle Up will be hard to beat, with Akatea likely to be better for the run.”

Always A Porsche faces a tough assignment from his outside of the front line draw from the tricky 1609m start, but he looks to have an open-class motor so can win if the tempo sets up nicely for him.

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.