Horse racing: Sterner tests await top New Zealand stable – Mick on Monday

Checkmate heads to Sydney this Saturday. Photo / Race Images

The time for sterner tests has arrived for one of New Zealand’s most powerful stables.

That could see thoroughbred stars Grail Seeker, Checkmate and Waitak all asked to step out of their comfort zones, and maybe into new ones, over the next month.

Trainer Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott easily snared the biggest prize on a quieter weekend for the code when Waitak destroyed his opponents in the $150,000 Ultimate Mazda Japan Trophy at Tauranga on Saturday, thanks to a Ryan Elliot ride straight out of the “Blake-Shinn-NZB-Kiwi” playbook.

It continued a wonderful black-type season for Wexford Stables, with seven stakes race wins as they sit third on the premiership, just one behind second-placed Stephen Marsh.

But as the New Zealand black-type season starts to wind down, O’Sullivan and Scott are plotting new tests for their elite gallopers.

Waitak will be given the chance to go back up to the middle distance he tried as a 3-year-old when he steps up to 2100m in the Awapuni Gold Cup at Trentham on March 29.

“We think he is ready for that step up now and how he handles it will tell us a lot about his options for next season,” Scott says.

“Who knows, maybe he can be the next El Vencedor, a sprinter who becomes a 2000m weight-for-age horse. We can only hope.”

Also stepping up to middle distance, but sooner, is the stable’s NZB Kiwi place-getter Checkmate, who heads to the Rosehill Guineas at 2000m in Sydney this Saturday.

He is bred to stay, being by two-time Derby winner Mongolian Khan, and his older brother Bankers Choice won over 2400m at Caulfield on Saturday.

Checkmate was a one-time favourite for the New Zealand Derby until his trainers decided to target the NZB Kiwi instead. That appears to have been the right decision, not only because of his Kiwi performance but also due to Willydoit’s Derby domination.

Everything about Checkmate suggests he will develop into at least a 2000m horse and maybe even be potent at 2400m, but he won’t be given the opportunity to test those latter credentials on this Australian trip.

“It is a one-race raid so no matter how he races this Saturday he won’t be going to the Australian Derby [April 5],” Scott explains.

“We think he is ready for 2000m but we didn’t make the latest Derby payment last week.

“A bit like Waitak stepping up to 2100m, Checkmate’s performance this week might tell us what options he has next season. We have Blake Shinn engaged to ride him.”

While Checkmate heads to Sydney, stablemate Sethito instead heads to Trentham this Saturday for the Wellington Guineas.

“We were thinking about the Vinery in Sydney with her but it is going to come up very strong for what would have been her first try at 2000m so she will instead drop back to the 1400m this Saturday,” Scott says.

“If she holds her form then we could look at options for her in Sydney but more likely Queensland or even South Australia,” Scott explains, as the hunt for Australian black type for the filly looms.

Also with her ticket booked for Australia but no boarding pass issued just yet is two-time Group 1 winner Grail Seeker, who was dazzling in both the Tarzino and Telegraph over the summer before lacking that same zest in the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa.

“She races best fresh and I think we made a mistake heading into the BCD, we should have given her more of a let-up between runs and her batteries were just a bit flat.”

Batteries recharged, Grail Seeker will trial next week and if the Wexford team are satisfied she could fly to Sydney for a hit-and-run mission, the Group 1 All Aged Stakes at Randwick on April 19.

The weight-for-age 1400m comes a week after The Championships and with sprinters being so fragile, some of the absolute stars who contest the TJ Smith on April 5 may not be there.

But it will still be a significant step up from New Zealand sprinting company and the greatest test of Grail Seeker’s career and Wexford’s wonderful season.

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.