Ruakaka races targetted by Richard Collett

Whangarei Racing Club's meeting tomorrow will be the beginning of regular visits over the next few months for Pukekohe trainer Richard Collett.
Collett has enjoyed plenty of success at past race days on the Ruakaka course and he will be well represented tomorrow with at least half a dozen runners, including Mai Na Chura and The Skull in the main events.
"At this time of year it suits me to take a team of horses up to the Ruakaka meetings," Collett said.
"There is a whole bunch of horses like the ones tomorrow that I have identified as Ruakaka horses for the next two to three months. These are the type of horses more suited to Ruakaka than heavier tracks at other places. We need tracks like this during winter."
Mai Na Chura is a prime example of a horse who found the heavy going at Ellerslie last start right against him, but is capable of providing a form reversal in the Rating 80 1600m event tomorrow.
The son of Stravinsky tailed the field home over 1600m on Anzac Day, but two starts earlier on a dead track at Te Rapa he was a solid second behind Agamemnon over the same trip.
"We had to try him in the heavy ground to see whether he'd handle it and he didn't," Collett said. "He should get a better surface at Ruakaka and could bounce back. He's a horse with a lot of ability, but he's not professional in his attitude." Mai Na Chura won a double at Counties early last year and the latest of his three wins came at Tauranga last January when again ridden by the trainer's oldest daughter, Tasha Collett, who takes the reins again.
She will also ride The Skull in the Rating 80 1200m and there is some optimism in the stable at his first start since last September.
"He's fresh-up, but is pretty forward," the trainer said. "He's been in work for three weeks and he should be suited by the pattern of racing at Ruakaka.
"There are some others who go well in the race, but he's a chance to get some of it."
The Skull's last win was fresh-up, at Dargaville, and his other three victories have all been at Avondale.
Tasha Collett will also ride stablemates Rio Grand and Mellow Yellow tomorrow, while her younger sister, Alysha, will be on Payette, and Derek Nolan has the mount on Ascot Hill.
Rio Grand has been placed in three of his six starts and was trapped wide at Ellerslie last start, while Mellow Yellow capped some useful efforts with a win at Counties on April 10.
"Rio Grand has been freshened and is dropping back to 1200 so should go well," Collett predicted. "Mellow Yellow won well enough last start and should be better suited at Ruakaka."
Payette finished seventh at Counties last start after a bold first-up second at Rotorua.