Horse racing: Mark Oulaghan chasing remarkable double-double at Te Rapa

Berry The Cash. Photo / Supplied

Trainer Mark Oulaghan has been gifted the last piece to the puzzle as he chases a remarkable double-double at Te Rapa today.

The meeting hosts the Great Northern Hurdles and Steeplechase and Oulaghan has the favourite in both, West Coast trying to defend his title in the Steeples and Berry The Cash the 73kg topweight in the Hurdle.

Should they win they will complete a near-perfect season in their respective disciplines and each will complete the Grand National-Great Northern double, giving Oulaghan a freakish training double.

While both have to carry giant weights they did that when they won the Nationals at Riccarton last month so little changes today but earlier in the week Oulaghan’s biggest worry was the Te Rapa track firming up as it got to a Soft 7 and looked to be improving.

“Even though they both won on slow 5-6 type tracks earlier this season I think they would be better suited by a heavy track because they are so strong and such good stayers,” he said.

He will get his wish with Te Rapa a Heavy 8 last night with at least some rain forecast overnight so it is hard to see it being anything but heavy today.

If West Coast wins the Steeplechase again he will surge further into the conversation about who our greatest-ever jumpers are, having already won last year’s Northern and three Grand Nationals.

“He seems as good as always,” says Mr Understated.

“They have done some travelling this season but they have handled it well.”

It is hard to make a case for most to beat West Coast today as he has been carrying the maximum allowed topweight of 73kgs in every steeplechase for a year and keeps winning.

The horse who got closest to him in this race last season, Captains Run, returns and looks the most logical danger while if the track gets really heavy then Pakuranga Hunt Cup winner Ima Wonder comes into play, trying to emulate her dam Ima Heroine who won the Great Northern in 2011.

While Berry The Cash has more or less matched West Coast’s dominance this season much of it has been carrying less weight and today’s Hurdles looks a little deeper so he might be the more vulnerable of the Oulaghan pair.

The jumpers will be the stars of the show today but the meeting is also a serious stepping stone to some of the spring flat races, with a horse like Sharp N Smart (R8, No 1) even tentatively on a Melbourne Cup path.

He meets another Group 1 winner in Campionessa as the pair return to the track where they quinellaed the Herbie Dyke 19 months ago.

The 1600m could be too pointy for both today, if they start on a heavy track, while earlier in the programme the open 1200m says the return of Wild Night, The Hottie, Romacing The Moon and plenty of others with roles to play in the better races approaching.

** The majority of yesterday’s New Plymouth meeting was abandoned after Race 3 after the very heavy track conditions and lack of visibility made racing unsafe.

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.