Both were on southbound transporters on Friday afternoon, although the 1600m event loses another Group 1 winner in Captured By Love who was scratched yesterday with her jockey Opie Bosson bouncing across to ride the greatly-improved Agera.
So now the final field looks set at 10 starters, the other (perhaps more important) question is whether Waitak will produce his spring form in the first major race of summer?
“We are confident he will,” says O’Sullivan.
“I know there was a lot of talk about the track during the week but that isn’t an issue for us because he has won this season on heavy and good tracks.
“And we don’t have to worry about the distance as he has won a Group 1 over 1200m in the Railway and 2040m in the Livamol.
“He is working well and looks great so we think he would be competitive in any race over any distance in this state.”
That level of encouragement from O’Sullivan, as their stable comes into a hot patch of form, should ensure Waitak shortens further from his $3 fixed odds quote in a race where most of his main rivals have at least one concern.
Fellow Matamata trainer Ken Kelso is also feeling good about the condition Legarto was in when he sent her south yesterday.
“I think she is in the best shape she has been in for quite some time,” says Kelso.
“The hood she trialled in has seen her travel up well but I’ll also admit there is a chance it could fire her up and I’d have preferred she didn’t draw barrier 1.”
That renewed enthusiasm could see Legarto settle handier than usual in what could be a tactical race.
If she gets a head of steam up at the 400m, Waitak won’t want to get giving her too big a start.
The scratching of Captured By Love and southern mare Loose Sally should at least also partially aid La Crique in her first start for 10 weeks, bringing her in from barrier 10 to eight but in a race potentially lacking hot tempo.
But she may still be forced to use her early speed and that is a tactic that has so often left her a target for late swoopers.
While Trentham hosts the Group 1 action today, Pukekohe boasts two black type races and the O’Sullivan/Scott stable have a huge hand in one of them, the $120,000 Bonecrusher Stakes.
The Group 3 is the next step toward the mammoth 3-year-old races ahead this summer and the stable have two of the favourites in Yamato Satona and L’Aigle Noir.
“They are both talented 3-year-olds but I’d rate L’Aigle Noir the better chance this week,” says O’Sullivan.
That suggests they must have a fair opinion of the son of Ribchester, because Yamato Satona has looked highly promising in both his career starts and closed hard late for second last time out, so the big Pukekohe track will suit him.
He would be an appropriate winner of a race named after one of our greatest ever horses, being trained by one of our greatest ever jockeys and racing in the colours of one of our greatest ever harness racing trainers in Barry Purdon.
While Pukekohe also hosts heats of the Dunstan Feeds Stayers Championship and Stella Artois series, the other black type race is the $120,000 Concorde Stakes in which Master Fay comes in well as a last-start winner.
He won the Concorde when it was run on Karaka Millions night last year but still only carries 55kg today.
There is plenty of depth to the sharp little field though, but with form concerns over some on a day where the shortest priced favourites are $2.60 chances, suggesting plenty of value for punters.
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.
