Sarten Memorial transferred to Tauranga after Te Rapa meeting abandoned

Wolfgang was able to win one of the two races run at Te Rapa on Monday before the rest of the meeting was abandoned. Photo / Kenton Wright

The most crucial lead-up race to NZ 2000 Guineas has been moved to Tauranga on Saturday after another race meeting abandonment at Te Rapa today.

The Te Rapa meeting was scrapped after Blackwaterfoot slipped and fell on the point of the home turn in Race 2, jockey Joe Doyle crashing to the ground and somersaulting forward.

Both horse and jockey were okay after the 2400m race won by Heza Sharp One.

While Blackwaterfoot was being moved wider by a rival, as horses so often are when coming off a corner, Blackwaterfoot still clearly lost its footing and after officials and jockeys inspected the track, the remaining six races were abandoned.

As frustrating as this latest abandonment will be for the connections of all horses entered for the meeting, the richest and most important race was the $150,000 Sarten Memorial, a crucial lead-up to the 2000 Guineas at Riccarton on November 15.

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing have moved quickly to provide trainers with a new pathway to the Guineas with the Sarten transferred to the Tauranga meeting this Saturday.

“There were two options and the other was Pukekohe on Wednesday,” NZTR’s operations manager Tim Aldridge said.

“We are very aware of the importance of this race not only because of its status and to the Sarten family but as a lead-up to the Guineas races at Riccarton.

“So we looked at Pukekohe to try to give the possible Guineas contenders as much time as possible between the Sarten and the two Guinea races, but the forecast suggests the track there will be heavy at Pukekohe and I don’t think any trainers want that leading into Riccarton.

“So the only other option is Saturday at Tauranga and that will give any of the horses who start in the Sarten two clear weeks before the 2000 Guineas.”

Aldridge says he and NZTR were aware there were three fillies entered for the Sarten and if their connection choose to start on Saturday they will only have a week to get to Riccarton for the NZ 1000 Guineas.

“From what we can work out it sounds like only one of those fillies was also targeting the 1000 Guineas,” Aldridge said.

Five of the favourites for the 2000 Guineas were supposed to race at Te Rapa today, four in the Sarten and Hostility in a maiden race.

Aldridge said new nominations were being called for Saturday’s rescheduled Group 2, with preference given to those who were in Monday’s original field.

Of the two races that were run on Monday, the open staying handicap was won by Wolfgang, who is now on a potential New Zealand Cup campaign.

Co-trainer Shaun McKay was pleased to see Wolfgang back in winning form after a frustrating Melbourne campaign.

“He struck hard tracks [in Australia] and I think he has just been a bit careful on his feet,” McKay said.

“We brought him back and reassessed things and it is good to have him back like that.

“You see it time and time again in those small fields, especially over in Aussie, when you get to the front and you get soft sectionals like that, they are hard to run down. Gryllsy rode him a masterpiece.”

The New Zealand Cup has now come back in the picture and McKay is keen to test him over the two miles once more, a distance he remains undefeated over, having won his sole attempt over the trip in the Gr.3 Wellington Cup (3200m) at Trentham in January.

“We took him out of the New Zealand Cup and we might have to re-enter him for it with a late entry,” McKay said.

— Additional reporting, LoveRacing.

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.