Levin horse High Quality winning at Otaki on Sunday with jockey Ryan Elliot aboard.
Levin horse High Quality winning at Otaki on Sunday with jockey Ryan Elliot aboard.
Levin horse High Quality is so happy his trainer will send him around again this weekend.
Not long after winning the $40,000 Raukawa Cup at Ōtaki on Sunday, the 7-year-old gelding was back home, galloping around in his paddock, kicking up his heels and scoffing his dinner.
That prompted trainer Geoff Haigh to consider backing the horse six days later at Trentham tomorrow in the $30,000 Hiremaster Premier (2400m).
"He is very well and has taken no harm from the Ōtaki run," he said.
"He has won three races at Ōtaki now, and has gone well at Trentham, too, so hopefully he can give a good account of himself again."
High Quality has now won six races and $120,000 in stake money. And as there was a dearth of quality New Zealand stayers, with just seven runners in the field tomorrow, he has an opportunity to add some more money to the biscuit tin.
There will be a change of jockey for High Quality at Trentham. He was ridden at Ōtaki by Ryan Elliot, who has opted to stick with Gorbachev, a horse he won the Wellington Cup aboard earlier this year.
But Haigh would lose nothing on the score of horsemanship with leading jockey Jonathan Parkes filling the stirrups.
Ryan Elliot unsaddles Levin horse High Quality after winning at Otaki at the weekend.
High Quality ran a luckless fifth in the Manawatū Cup in December last season and looking further ahead it was a race Haigh was tempted to target again.
"We might take him to Waverley along the way," he said.
Long term, Haigh was also considering a nomination for the Auckland Cup, often thought of as less of a staying test than the Wellington Cup, and a race that could suit the horse should any early autumn rain arrive, as he preferred the sting out of the ground.
"He can handle firm ground, but when you get to top company they can go a wee bit quick for him. A little bit of rain can slow the rest down a bit and that makes him competitive," he said.
"Because he is honest and he does try."
Meanwhile, Manakau horse Dolcetto will try and go one better than last year's second placing in the $70,000 Gee and Hickton Thomson Handicap (1600m) later in the programme.s Dolcetto, the winner of nine races $305,000 in stake money, went down narrowly to Awapuni mare Dark Princess in the corresponding event last season, although he carried top weight of 60kg, some 7kg more than the winner.
