Legarto.
Superstar mare Legarto may not have raced for nearly a year, but she has done more work than ever heading into her comeback at Matamata tomorrow.
The former Australian Guineas winner returns in a very strong Lisa Chittick Champagne Stakes on Matamata’s biggest race day of the season, also featuring both the Fairview Matamata Slipper and J Swap Breeders Stakes.
Several leading Auckland Cup contenders will also contest the Matamata Veterinary Kaimai Stakes, but any time a mare of Legarto’s class returns on her home track, that’s likely to be the highlight of the meeting, especially against fellow Group 1 winners Skew Wiff and Provence.
Legarto hasn’t raced since finishing sixth in the Australian Cup last March but was favourite for the first Group 1 of the New Zealand season, the Tarzino Trophy, until a leg issue flared up in August.
While such a long break from racing would usually be a red flag for punters, co-trainer Ken Kelso says Legarto has actually been busy.
“She has spent a lot of time, almost every day, on either the water walker or the treadmill since she developed that little problem,” says Kelso.
“She is such a big strong mare, we weren’t going to risk putting her in the paddock for three months – she simply would have come back too big.
“So she is quite fit without having a trial, which we would have liked.
“But she has had an exhibition gallop, and with that good grounding, I think she can go well. Whether she can win, I don’t know.” Kelso hopes Legarto, being fresh, may be able to sit with at least a few horses behind her so she doesn’t have to try to come from last against some very good, fit mares.
Safely through tomorrow’s race, Legarto could be set for the NZ Breeders Stakes at Ellerslie on Champions Day, March 8.
She has found a strong race to return in, with not only Skew Wiff and the much-improved Provence but real depth through the field, and with many of the favourites drawn wide, it should be a intriguing contest.
While the Chittick Champagne Stakes has the most horses with recognisable names of any race on the card, the two juvenile races are the stepping stones to even greater riches.
The Matamata Breeders Stakes sees Karaka Million winner La Dorada back, and while she will be a warm favourite, there is enough depth in the field to suggest she will still need to race up to to her peak to emulate her dam Gold Fever, who also won this race.
Things start to get serious for the male juveniles as they use the Slipper as their next step toward the Group 1 Sistema on Champions Day, one of only two Group 1s for NZ juveniles over the season.
Te Ākau dominate the Slipper with Return To Conquer, To Bravery Born and He Who Dares, and while Return To Conquer has looked highly talented, winning both his starts so far, he also looks to have more improvement as his concentration improves.
He will start a hot favourite tomorrow, but it isn’t a past-the-post job considering juvenile form can change so rapidly at this stage of the season as horses grow, improve or sometimes taper off.
Meanwhile, Kelso confirms his Railway runner-up Alabama Lass is on target for Kings Plate at Ellerslie on March 8, after which she could head to Melbourne to make her Australian debut at Flemington on March 29.
“There is an 1100m race down the straight there that day worth A$500,000 which could work in really well,” says Kelso.
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.