Superstar sprinter First Five to miss $600,000 Group 1 race at Ellerslie

First Five was the hometown hero in the BCD Group Sprint at Te Rapa last Saturday. Photo / Kenton Wright

New Zealand’s sprinter of the summer will miss his next target, with trainer David Greene deciding that First Five will bypass next week’s $600,000 Ōtaki-Māori Classic at Ellerslie.

The muscular 5-year-old demolished the best sprint field of the season in the BCD Group Sprint (1400m) on his Te Rapa home track last Saturday, making it back-to-back Group 1 wins after claiming the Telegraph at Trentham on January 3.

Greene had intended to step First Five up to 1600m in next week’s Group 1, but says First Five will instead have a quiet two weeks and be set for a one-off autumn race.

“Two weeks would have been a tight back-up for him.

“He generally races better with his races spaced, and he hopefully has a lot more to come in his future, so we will look after him.

“We are lucky to have owners who are patient, so we can do that.”

First Five was the $3.20 favourite for next Saturday’s weight-for-age feature, but when news of his absence broke, he was withdrawn from the market, leaving Pier as the $3 favourite.

First Five follows Herbie Dyke Stakes winner Legarto as a Group 1 winner at Te Rapa last Saturday who will also miss the Ōtaki-Māori Classic market.

However, next Saturday’s meeting will still be one of the highlights of the summer, with the $1 million New Zealand Oaks a new addition to the programme that also hosts the Avondale Cup, the Avondale Guineas and Uncle Remus Stakes.

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.