Quintessa loves spring racing just not on heavy tracks.
The racing weekend that has posed more questions than it answered has left one in particular dangling: where next for Quintessa?
Even her own connections aren’t sure as the first Group 1 winner of the season tries to plot an appropriate path to the Livamol Classic at Ellerslie on October 18.
Quintessa won the Proisir Plate at Ellerslie on September 6 but was scratched from the Howden Insurance Mile at Te Rapa on Saturday because of the heavy track.
That Group 1 was won brilliantly by Waitak and he, and most of those who finished close behind him, will head to Ellerslie and the step up to 2000m in the Livamol.
That’s also the aim for Quintessa but she is now a race behind her rivals and co-trainer Sam Bergerson said finding the ideal next step isn’t as easy as you might think.
Most obviously, Quintessa can start in the $80,000 Matamata Cup on her home track this Saturday but she could end up topweight for that 1600m and there is no guarantee the track will be any better than it was at Te Rapa.
“We had a meeting [Monday] morning and we still don’t know what to do,” said Bergerson.
“We will nominate her for here on Saturday and see what weight she gets but if the weather forecast is right then it could still be heavy here and she’d be unlikely to start.
“She could also be nominated for Hāwera [$100,000 mares 1400m] race on Saturday but 1400m second up isn’t ideal as a lead-up to a 2000m race and it could also be wet down there.
“So it isn’t easy and of course the other option is going straight into the Livamol next but that obviously isn’t ideal either.”
Waitak is confirmed as going to the Livamol, his runner-up La Crique is also likely and trainer Allan Sharrock can’t wait to get third-placed Ladies Man to Ellerslie.
“All we need is a decent draw so we can stay closer to El Vencedor,” says Sharrock.
El Vencedor’s trainer Stephen Marsh bit the wet-track bullet and can be happy enough with the Horse of the Year’s seventh on an unsuitably wet track, while co-trainer Ken Kelso was satisfied with Legarto’s fifth.
“She might have raced a bit dour so the step up to 2000m next start should suit her,” Kelso said.
He also said examinations have found nothing wrong with Alabama Lass after she raced well below her best in the Manikato Stakes at The Valley on Friday night.
“Craig [Williams, jockey] told me he went from giggling at the 600m about how well she was going to her being gone and losing her action,” Kelso said.
“We had her checked out and she was sound after the race and she didn’t suffer an atrial fibrillation, which is what we initially thought it might be.
“The only thing we can think of now is maybe she flipped her soft palate. If that is the case a tongue tie can help that, or even in a worst-case scenario a relatively simple laser operation on that area.
“She will have a short spell in Victoria and come home late next week to be set for the Railway.”
Also below his best on the weekend was Hawke’s Bay Guineas favourite He Who Dares, who was forced out of Saturday’s race not because of the wet track but by a temperature spike on race morning.
“We are thinking it isn’t anything serious and are planning to run him in the Sarten [Te Rapa, October 27] before the Guineas down south,” said co-trainer Bergerson.
Stablemate Hostility, who is still $6 equal favourite for the 2000 Guineas, will be entered for a 3-year-old race at Matamata this Saturday but if the track is heavy he could revert to a maiden 1300m at Taupō the following Friday.
That may seem an unconventional route to the 2000 Guineas but, then again, Hawke’s Bay Guineas winner Magic Carpet was a maiden before his Group 2 win at Te Rapa on Saturday.
That alone raises questions about the early-season depth of the 3-year-old boys and suggests the NZ 2000 Guineas is still wide open.
A lot of questions, so far very few answers.
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.