Strutter targets Ellerslie

The Strutter will tomorrow at Ellerslie attempt to achieve what her mother Tui Akarana couldn't.
Tui Akarana was good enough to win nine races, including a Rotorua Cup and a Kiwifruit Cup and finish third in Double Take's New Zealand Cup. But she went luckless in two attempts at the Cornwall Handicap.
In 1994 she finished sixth behind Brilliant Venture and a year later was 14th of 15.
The Strutter, very much in the mould of her mother, put her name up for Cornwall consideration when she scored a gritty last-stride victory over The Missing Link at Ellerslie last Saturday.
That was a knock-down, drag-out type of race and exactly what's needed in what will have to be extremely testing conditions.
One thing the family that Dargaville's Dick Stevenson keeps producing do well at is running strongly through the mud.
The Strutter is going to get conditions to suit tomorrow.
The Ellerslie track was yesterday rated a heavy 11 and rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow.
What she produced in the closing stages to win last week can only be described as sheer bloody-mindedness - an attribute that will greatly override class here.
Having won under 55kg last week, The Strutter is nicely placed on the 54kg minimum.
So is Twoeezy, who is stepping up to open grade.
Twoeezy has won five races on good or dead going and is only one from three in heavy footing, but that could be a little misleading.
One of the easiest wet track wins of recent times was his runaway win at Pukekohe where he ran the 2100m in a snail-like 2.20, 10 seconds slower than when he was seventh to Postman's Daughter on a much better surface at Te Rapa at his next start and nine seconds faster than when he was second to Sum Up on another good track at Ruakaka last start.
A repeat of his Pukekohe effort, where he was doing three-quarter pace for a long way, would take him close here.
Allende could be the value. Overall, this field is not as strong as when she finished third to So Pristine and Smoking Chimneys at Te Rapa last start.
One of her better runs was her second to New Moon in the Winning Edge Championship Final at Tauranga.
Southerner Blancpain adds considerable interest. Her sole North Island starts were when fourth to Montjee in last year's Kiwifruit Cup at Tauranga and her seventh in Trentham's Parliamentary.
She is a dead-set mudder, who has won eight races, six of them in the heavy stuff.
Last start she won the Great Autumn at Riccarton, the 2500m slog taking nearly three minutes. On that basis she's going to plug away well here, the issue might come with the 58.5kg.