Whangaehu aims for Hawke’s Bay Cup win under heavy weight burden

Whangaehu will contest Saturday's Listed Valley D’Vine Restaurant Hawke’s Bay Cup (2200m) at Trentham. Photo / Peter Rubery / Race Images

• Bill Thurlow believes Whangaehu can handle the 59kg topweight in the $120,000 Hawke’s Bay Cup.
• Whangaehu’s form suggests a win is possible if jockey Craig Grylls can get him rolling early.
• Mehzebeen, Nereus and The Odyssey are key contenders if Whangaehu’s weight proves a disadvantage.

Bill Thurlow will try something at Trentham tomorrow he wouldn’t attempt every week, or with every horse.

But he thinks Whangaehu can get away with it in the $120,000 Valley D’Vine Restaurant Hawke’s Bay Cup.

Thurlow is a skilled operator, the type of trainer who can get away with things others can’t, which is just as well because he is asking Whangaehu to carry the 59kg topweight tomorrow, with a whopping 4.5kg to the next horse, New Zealand Cup winner Mehzebeen.

Having been luckless in two of our best weight-for-age races, the Herbie Dyke and Bonecrusher, over the summer Whangaehu stormed home for fifth in his last start in the Awapuni Gold Cup after never getting into a winning position.

Thurlow says that wasn’t jockey Craig Grylls’ fault, even though it looked very unambitious.

“That is just him, he can be a really funny horse,” explains Thurlow.

“As he gets deeper into a campaign, he can get lazier, and that is worse when he gets back on the inside.

“He really needs to get out and rolling, and when Craig tried to do that the gaps weren’t there, and when he did get out, it was too late.

“To be honest, that worries me again this week just as much as the weight, because he has another low draw.”

If Grylls can get Whangaehu out and rolling earlier, his form suggests he can win, but there is still the matter of his huge weight.

“I suppose he has earned it as he is a Rating 100 horse, but weight can stop a train,” says Thurlow.

“I think he is one horse who might be able to get away with it because he is a big horse, but you wouldn’t want to try it with most horses and you wouldn’t want to try it every week.

“But this is his last start of the campaign, so I am happy to have a go and still think he can win.”

There are a few who could exploit any vulnerability the big weight exposes in Whangaehu, with Mehzebeen well weighted for a Metropolitan/New Zealand Cup winner who is proven on big tracks and likes to run handy.

Nereus may not have often embellished his big reputation this season but he is still a Counties Cup winner, so well in on 54kg, while The Odyssey raced well in the summer cups and won the Remutaka Classic here last season.

Any of that quartet could win without reaching a new peak in a race in which the second half of the field is disadvantaged by the compressed weight scale, meaning they don’t get the relief their lower ratings would usually allow.

Thurlow takes two other handy chances to Trentham tomorrow and suggests punters could do worse than stick with The Big Picture (R5, No 2).

“He loomed up to win last start but Craig thought he lost his concentration late, so we have put blinkers on him and we think they will help,” he explains.

“He is a big horse who won’t mind being drawn wide as he likes to get to the outside, and I think he can go very close.”

The Entertainer (R6, No 9) was one of the lower-grade stars of NZ Cup week back in November but has done little since.

“I was a bit disappointed in her last start, but she has worked well since and she might be on the improve.”

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.