Ownership has trumped mateship as One Bold Cat heads into the $550,000 Livamol Classic at Te Rapa on Saturday.
And the big winner out of that situation could be Group 1 X-factor jockey Ryan Elliot.
Elliot has retained his catch ride on One Bold Cat for Saturday’s Group 1, which has been transferred from Hastings to Te Rapa because of concerns over the Hawke’s Bay track after the Arrowfield meeting there was abandoned last month.
That meeting was moved to Matamata last Wednesday and One Bold Cat snared his first Group 1 by swooping on favourite Skew Wiff in the last two strides as Elliot had his first ride on the 6-year-old.
It continued a wonderful run in Group 1 races for Elliot in the past two years.
One Bold Cat is trained by Robbie Patterson, whose No 1 jockey and one of his best mates is Craig Grylls, who was initially offered the ride on Saturday.
Grylls couldn’t ride One Bold Cat last week as he rode stablemate Puntura, who is not in Saturday’s race.
“Gryllsy was committed to One Bold Cat and that is who I wanted on but the owner overruled me,” Patterson told the Herald.
“He didn’t want to take off a jockey who had won a Group 1 on the horse just last week, so he made the decision to stick with Ryan.
“I’ll be honest, I wanted Gryllsy because he is my main rider and a bloody good mate but ultimately the owners pay the bills so what they say goes.
“And you’d be thrilled to have Ryan on any horse so he will give him a great ride.”
Patterson said One Bold Cat has thrived since winning the Arrowfield over 1600m and he should be more potent up to 2040m on Saturday.
“We actually took him out on the track the next day [last Thursday] and he was squealing and kicking and carrying on.
“He worked really well on Tuesday and he is spot on.”
One Bold Cat has the advantage of being able to compete at the highest level on tracks rated from good to heavy so should be potent on either come Saturday.
“He has won on heavy tracks and won last week on a Good 4 so it won’t bother us if it rains or stays fine,” says Patterson.
The Te Rapa track was rated a Heavy 8 yesterday but looked better underfoot when Livamol contender Pearl Of Alsace galloped there. If the changing forecast, which suggests fine days ahead, is correct then it could get into the Soft 5 range by Saturday.
It wouldn’t take much rain to alter that though and the biggest weather watch will be for favourite Campionessa, who has no heavy track form and whose best work has been on good surfaces.
Campionessa (6) and One Bold Cat (7) have drawn alongside each other, with last season’s Bonecrusher NZ Stakes winner El Vencedor drawn ideally at barrier 3.
The big loser out of the barrier draws could be Snazzytavi, who won well at Te Rapa last start but has barrier 18, to start from 15, with a relatively short run to the first bend. The Livamol is the highlight of a stellar, albeit surprise, meeting for Te Rapa, with some huge form pointer races for the spring features ahead.
The first race features some exciting 3-year-olds with Guineas aspirations while the MAAT (race 5) is a beauty.
Habana and Skyman headline the open 1400m while the undercard features clashes such as Dazzled versus Platinum Attack in race 8 and with the even fields punters should get a fair crack.
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.