Horse racing: Double blow for NZ horses in Australia

Legarto was heavily backed late into third favouritism but she jumped poorly at the start.

A roller-coaster week for two New Zealand thoroughbred stars ended on a double low in Melbourne and Sydney yesterday.

An unfortunate series of events have not only robbed Taranaki galloper Ladies Man of a spot in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, but not long after, Matamata mare Legarto all but lost her winning chance at the start of the A$10 million Golden Eagle in Sydney.

Legarto was heavily backed late into third favouritism but she jumped poorly at the start and jockey Mick Dee had little option but to go to the inside and try to find runs late.

She got clear way too late and never really had her chance to wind up, finishing 10th in a race won in stunning fashion by Japanese raider Obamburumai, who came from near last, taking short cuts to grab Pericles and Golden Mile.

Obamburumai completed a great week in Australia for horses trained in Asia after Romantic Warrior won the Cox Plate last Saturday.

Obamburumai was ridden by Sydney jockey Joshua Parr, who didn’t have the ride until Japan’s champion jockey Yutaka Take was kicked by a horse last week and wasn’t well enough to make the trip to Sydney to ride the visiting star.

Legarto is now likely to return to New Zealand and be set for TAB Karaka Millions night at Ellerslie on January 27.

Also unlucky after a wild few days was Ladies Man, who missed a spot in the Melbourne Cup by one place.

He was effectively in the top 24 for the race on Wednesday until Interpretation won the Bendigo Cup and leapfrogged past him.

Ladies Man returned to 25th after that but was promoted back to 24th in the rankings, and was in the Cup on Friday night when Valiant King was withdrawn with lameness.

But while he started yesterday set to get a Melbourne Cup run at Flemington, that changed again when Kalapour won the A$300,000 Archer Handicap, which as an automatic qualifying race, boosted him into the Cup.

To make matters worse, Kalapour narrowly beat Athabascan, who had it won wouldn’t have accepted for the Cup, so Ladies Man would have stayed in the field.

Ladies Man, ridden conservatively, could finish only sixth in the Archer, so would have struggled to make an impression in the Cup, which now won’t have a New Zealand-trained runner.

Kalapour is at least part-owned in New Zealand by one of the industry’s biggest investors in Lib Petagna.

There will be other Kiwi links in the Cup on Tuesday through trainers Chris Waller and Mike Moroney, and jockeys James McDonald and Mick Dee.

There are also several New Zealand-bred horses in the Cup but they are set to start outsiders.

Trainer Waller and jockey McDonald combined to win the signature race of Derby Day when Riff Rocket won the A$2m Victoria Derby.