Trainer Grant Cooksley confident in Sacred Satono ahead of Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate

Bonny Lass (yellow colours) winning the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa in February.

Trainer Grant Cooksley isn’t harbouring the same concerns as many of his rivals heading into Saturday’s $150,000 Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa.

Which makes Sacred Satono the horse to beat in the first big-time weight-for-age clash of the new season.

The Foxbridge Plate brings together Group 1 winners, resuming middle distance horses, winter warhorses like Wewillrock and Turn The Ace and even the reigning Horse of the Year in Sharp N Smart who is being set for a Melbourne Cup.

With that diversity comes an array of nagging doubts. The trainers of some may be worried about the 1200m distance, others about their horse’s fitness while fresh up and then there is the underlying worry about the heavy track.

The one trainer who doesn’t have any of those worries is Cooksley, who trains Sacred Satono with partner Bruce Wallace.

Sacred Satono may be fresh up like many of his rivals but Cooksley is adamant he performs well in that state and with two recent winning trials fitness shouldn’t be an issue.

“And I am not worried about the track, he handles any sort of going and has won on heavy,” he offers.

They are two big boxes to tick for Saturday while the weight-for-age scale also works for him because he is a 98 rater.

Add in his ability to go forward and race on the speed on a day when the rail will be back in the true position, possibly suiting those closer to the fence, and there is every chance Sacred Satono could start favourite.

The actual favourite Bonny Lass ticks many of those same boxes — Te Rapa form, good recent trial and well off at weight-for-age — but her co-trainer Graeme Richardson isn’t quite so enthused by the prospect of a Te Rapa track.

It is expected to be a Heavy 9 and 10, with the possibility of the dreaded rain on the day.

“She is ready to go but I am not happy about a heavy track,” admits Richardson.

“She is so fast that a heavy track slows her down but we have to start so she can be ready for the Tarzino two weeks later.

“I am not saying she can’t win but we are far less confident on a heavy track.”

One horse who has excellent heavy track form, including at Te Rapa, and fitness on his side is Wewillrock.

He could get across to potentially even lead early and if rain does fall on Saturday and makes the track very testing he will be hard to catch even though he may not have the elite level form of some of those chasing him.

The Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott stable lost defending champ Dragon Leap from the race yesterday after he was lame following track work, leaving them with Railway winner Waitak as their sole representative.

“The wet track will help him but he is still very much on the way up,” says O’Sullivan.

Then comes Mustang Valley, who has won Group 1s the last two springs on Heavy 10 tracks and trialed well behing Sacred Satono two weeks ago but isn’t really a sprinters.

Her Group 1 victories have been at 1600m and 2040m so if Saturday’s race was 400m or even 800m longer she would be the one to beat.

It isn’t, so she isn’t.

But from barrier 3 and being rated 107 she could still be the one charging late.

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.