Trainer Joanne Moss is going to let the star of her tiny team tell her when he has reached his level.
But until then Doctor Askar is
going to keep aiming higher, perhaps all the way to the top.
The five-year-old has been one of the surprise packages of 2025, beaten only once in six starts and going from a maiden last December to winning the Manco Easter at Ellerslie in April.
That was a Group 3 and Moss will ask Doctor Askar to step up another grade to Group 2 for Saturday’s $150,000 Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa on Saturday.
“I don’t know if he is good enough for it,” says Moss, clearly enjoying the unlikely ride Doctor Askar is taking her on.
“Every time I have asked him to try something new, like travelling or racing at a new level, he seems to thrive on it.
“It looks a pretty good field this week but he seems happy and ready.
“I haven’t really had too much time to think about it, it is calving season and we have a whole lot of calves being born here and more to come.
“I reckon we have 200 of them here on the farm, I have lost count.”
Moss won’t have to worry about losing count of her racehorses though, as she only has three, with Doctor Askar extra special not only because she bred him but she co-owns him with her 92-year-old mother Jill.
Doctor Askar’s improvement curve was so steep last season it is hard to know when it will stop and while he is rated an $11 chance for Saturday’s 1200m, it would not be a surprise to see him win.
That raises the question of the next rung on racing’s ladder, the $400,000 Group 1 Proisir Plate and a return to Ellerslie on September 6.
The mere notion of diving into the Group 1 pool makes Moss laugh.
“I am not sure about that. I mean, maybe, if he raced really well this Saturday.
“But there are some pretty good horses going to the Ellerslie race. There are even some pretty good ones this week.”
Doctor Askar gives the famous racing town of Waverley, home to Melbourne Cup icon Kiwi, two realistic chances in Saturday’s Foxbridge, with rival Spencer also from the small Taranaki town.
Spencer was trapped wide outside Twain when beaten by him and Midnight Scandal here last start but his run was as good as any in that race.
Sacred Satono maintained his pre-draw favouritism for the Foxbridge at $3.30 last night, even though his ace draw could be good or bad.
Blessed with natural speed and in a field lacking many proven Group 1 sprinters, Sacred Satono could use the draw to dictate his own path, which could be crucial late in the day on a Heavy 10 track.
However, if he is even a few strides slow or gets crossed early by more than one rival, his pathway to the winner’s circle could become trickier to negotiate.
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.
