What also helps Habana is the re-opening of Ellerslie for what could be its biggest season ever, headlined by a boosted Karaka Millions and the new Champions Day.
For all his talent Habana is a funny horse who doesn’t like travelling or wet tracks.
He developed a love for the Pukekohe track during Ellerslie’s closure but now the Auckland centrepiece is back and should provide good footing for all meetings, Habana should relish it too.
“He likes firmer tracks and he hates travelling, so Ellerslie should suit him fine,” says Noble.
“He has really furnished into a lovely horse now and we’d like to think he could even stretch to 2000m this season.
“But he has a good record fresh and has had two trials so he is as ready to go as we can have him.”
Habana looks a more natural 1400m horse than Orchestral but Campionessa seems proficient at almost any distance from 1400 to 2000m so which one of the trio sprints the sharpest on Saturday could decide the race.
Having them on track for Ellerslie’s first meeting of the season is a somewhat unexpected bonus for Auckland Thoroughbred Racing and local racing fans but even they aren’t looking forward to it as much as Noble.
The retained main trainer for Cambridge Stud’s Brendan and Jo Lindsay, Noble powered down his team around April to avoid the heavy tracks of winter but is starting to roll the big guns out now.
“We have lost a couple who are off to stud like Aquacade and Polygon but we have Habana and Luberon racing on Saturday and Dazzled ready to go soon,” says Noble.
Luberon returns in the Rating 75 over 1200m on Saturday and Noble believes she has matured since a three-year-old campaign full of ups and down last season.
“Like Hababa, she races well fresh so I think she can go close this week and have a good season.
“It is good to have horses going back to the races and I think we have a nice team to go on with.”
The Ellerslie meeting looks the ideal comeback model for racing in Auckland, starting at 12.30pm but with only eight races finished by 4.40pm so racing fans can focus on Australian features or the All Blacks-Wallabies rugby test.
It will provide a short, sharp test of the renovated StrathAyr surface but also the touch of class to remind Auckland racing fans of what lies ahead.
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.
