Tomodachi has real class and the world's best jockey James McDonald on in today's TAB Telegraph. Photo / Kenton Wright
TODAY’S RACING
** Trentham, five black-type races, first race 12.30pm
** Te Aroha, first race 12.12pm
World champion jockey James McDonald has doubled his number of rides at Trentham today after being made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
The Kiwi superstar returns home for what was to be a rare one-off ride on Tomodachi in the $550,000 TAB Telegraph.
Tomodachi is owned by Sir Peter Vela, who has been one of McDonald’s greatest supporters and mentors, so the Sydney-based jockey was happy to make the trip to Wellington for that sole ride.
Until Thursday.
That was when McDonald, who had sworn he was only taking the one ride, realised he had also been engaged to ride Argo in the $400,000 Levin Classic.
Trainer Tony Pike didn’t actually bother asking McDonald if he was keen to ride the three-year-old in the Group 2, figuring he really couldn’t say no.
Why?
Because Argo is owned by McDonald’s mother Dianne, close friends Leith Innes, Guy Mulcaster, Pike and Cambridge Stud.
“I think Pikey knew I couldn’t say no to that group so it looks like I have two rides now,” laughs McDonald.
“It is obviously a pretty nice horse and I’d love to win for them but I’m going there first and foremost to ride Tomodachi.
“This is usually a time of year I have a small break before we get back into it for the Magic Millions meeting on the Gold Coast, but Sir Peter has been such a huge influence on my career and a great friend, so I was happy to come over to ride his mare.
“And she has to be a good chance, she has real class and I’d love to get a Group 1 for him and his family.”
Tomodachi may be by a former Derby winner in Tarzino, but for the past year trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott have been convinced she is a Group 1 sprinter, and her sole start this season, when third in the 1400m Proisir Plate at Ellerslie in September, suggests they are right.
She seems at her most explosive when able to follow a good speed then unleash late, and that may be McDonald’s only real option from barrier 15, which is not a disaster down the Trentham dogleg 1200m, especially if the ground in the middle of the straight becomes the faster lane late in today’s meeting.
“The one thing that could trip her up is a possible lack of a hot tempo,” McDonald told the Herald.
“For a Group 1 sprint, it doesn’t have many real flyers who you think will have the foot down right from the start.
“If that did happen, they go hard and we get cover in midfield then she [Tomodachi] is the one to beat.
“But if the tempo eases off a touch it could bring a few of those closer to the speed into play.”
While the Telegraph usually promises a supersonic 1200m, today’s field actually features few proven Group 1 performers with lots of decent form.
Crocetti and Grail Seeker are the only Group 1 winners in the field. Both of them also come into the race fresh but have looked sharp and ready in recent trials, and Crocetti has the natural speed to settle handy and take bad luck out of his equation.
Grail Seeker was stunning winning this race last year, when she settled and swooped, and she can repeat that, but the pattern of the race will be crucial as barrier 3 brings traffic issues into play.
Still, she has twice proven she can win elite-level sprints and most here haven’t yet, so her $10 fixed price is the best value in the race.
Red-hot trainer Stephen Marsh has three chances in the Telegraph and admits they are hard to split, but the fact Ardalio is the $5.50 second favourite is a little surprising, with another expat Kiwi jockey visiting from Australia, Daniel Stackhouse, aboard for the race.
While the Levin Classic has an even feel to it, as the 2000 Guineas winner Romanoff is the horse to beat, even from his wide barrier in a race that could have early tempo to help him get into the race late.
The five black-type races today kick off with the Wellesley Stakes for the juveniles, in which Silhouette (R3, No 7) will be hard to beat, but the Marton Cup (Race 5) and Ron Stanley Memorial (Race 6) look far more challenging 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.