By Michael Guerin
At first glance they couldn't appear further apart.
Roger James, the former banker with his superstar stable that makes him a serious big-race player on both sides of the Tasman.
And Ron Langsford, with only one horse anybody has really heard of, just happy to be training at all after a torrid battle with illness in the last year.
But on Saturday they both face unusual training challenges in New Zealand's richest weight-for-age race. And both men are approaching the race with that great substitute for genuine confidence - optimism.
James admits he will need to pull something special out of the bag with Cronus to win Saturday's $250,000 Kelt Capital Stakes.
The 7-year-old hasn't raced since his Brisbane Cup failure in July, hardly the ideal build-up for New Zealand's 2040m weight-for-age championship.
"I know some people might see this race as just a lead-up to his main spring aims in Australia but I don't believe in using group one races as lead-ups," said James.
And some unorthodox training yesterday suggested to the Matamata trainer Saturday's race is no mission impossible.
"I did something I have never tried with him before. I took him for a four or five mile ride around the roads and he loved it," he said.
"The old spring was back in his stride and that has been missing from his recent trackwork. The way he felt he could come out and surprise on Saturday because there are a few horses in this race who aren't true weight-for-age horses."
As a former Adelaide Cup winner and last season's Prime Minister's Cup hero, Cronus, even fresh, could be racing at a distance short of his best on Saturday.
But that is where Ron Langsford faces a completely different yet equally daunting task with Rebel.
The 6-year-old has never been tried at 2000m and hasn't even managed a win at 1600m.
Yet Langsford isn't letting the record book stop him from giving Rebel his chance.
"He deserves a chance to find out whether he can run the trip and this is the ideal race to do it," said the Kumeu horseman.
Rebel may have made his name as one of our best sprinters in the last two years but Langsford says those days may be gone.
"These days he just doesn't want to run early so we have to drop him out. That relaxed attitude could help him get the 2040m."
Rebel resumed with a blistering second to Hero over 1400m at Hastings four weeks ago and was the unlucky runner when forced wide behind Just Call Me Sir in the 1600m middle leg of the Hastings weight-for-age triple crown.
"That run indicated to me he can run the distance because it is very hard to come from back in the field in a mile at Hastings but he did a pretty good job that day.
"But unfortunately we haven't got a very good draw again, which might not make it easy to get a midfield position."
While the draw hardly favours Rebel he is still better off than favourite Just Call Me Sir, who will start from the outside of the 14-horse field in his bid to defend the title he won last season.
The big winner in the draw is Batavian, who has drawn barrier two and looks perfectly placed to race handy to likely pacemaker Hero.
Another whose odds shortened yesterday were budding star and track specialist Cent Home, who has drawn barrier six in the biggest test of his short career.
Horse Racing: Many different paths to Kelt
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