“Thirty-eight of our wins have come with three-year-olds so we have some really nice horses to bring back for next season.”
At the highest level, their Wexford Stables has Grail Seeker and Waitak being aimed at the $400,000 Proisir Plate at Ellerslie on September 6 and they could be joined by Tomodachi and possibly even Checkmate.
“Checkmate isn’t certain to go there but we are aiming the other three at it.
“Grail Seeker was never quite the same after her Telegraph win last season, which I think took a lot out of her, but she is coming up well and she will have two trials then straight into the Group 1.”
There will be nothing quite at glamorous as all that at Te Rapa today but that won’t stop punters making a dollar if they can find the horse who handles the improving Heavy 9 track best.
For O’Sullivan and Scott, the day starts with Ribraka (R4, No.1), who ploughed through a very heavy track here last start to beat a handy horse in Honey Badger. Japanese apprentice Yuga Okubo rides again.
That reduces Ribraka’s weight from the carded 58.5kg to 55.5kg, making him the horse to beat as the stable aims to continue its remarkable run with three-year-olds.
“I would say the wetter the better for him so he wouldn’t want it to get drier and too holding,” says O’Sullivan.
The stable has Sweet But Psycho (R5, No.13) in one of today’s most competitive races, with Okubo’s claim possibly taking her weight down to 51kg, if he can ride that light.
“She is more of a 2000m horse and only second-up at 1600m but with that light weight she has to be chance even though she is still very much on the way up.”
The consistent Jaffira (R8, No.2) is another the stable will claim with, Sam McNab bringing the gelding’s weight down from 60kg to 56kg and giving him an each-way chance.
The $100,000 Callinan Family Taumarunui Cup is not only today’s feature but something of an unheralded winter gem, a handicap worth that much at this time of the year.
But it is also a real punting puzzle, with plenty of horses in good enough form to be of interest. More than half the field could win without it being a surprise.
At the other end of the North Island, the last black-type race of the thoroughbred season has attracted a handy field for the $80,000 Ryder Stakes at Ōtaki.
There has already been a move in the market toward filly Platinum Diamond (R5, No.3) who as $3.70 into $3.20 and don’t be surprised to see her shorten further to challenge Spandeedo for favouritism.
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.
