By Michael Guerin
Grant Searle got his first good news of the New Year yesterday - and it felt like his first good news for a month.
The jocular Levin trainer has picked a bad time to have a bad run, with just about everything that could go wrong, going wrong lately.
"I can't believe it. I know it happens in training but at the moment nothing is going right," Searle said yesterday.
"It is not big disastrous things, just little annoyances which are costing us races at an expensive time of the season."
The biggest annoyance was Trans Siberia's early knock which left him last and hopeless in the Railway on New Year's Day.
"That one really hurt because he was ready for a big race," Searle said.
"It wasn't really anybody's fault, he was just a victim of circumstances."
Trans Siberia started favourite but was never a chance after Dantelah bumped him soon after the start and he did well to run sixth.
And that is where the good news starts for Searle.
Trans Siberia will be on 55kgs in the Telegraph at Trentham on January 30, with both Hero and Rebel weighted above him, when the weights are released today.
"You would think at least one of those two above him would line up, which means we would stay on 55kgs. That would be ideal," he said.
Searle is also thrilled controversial Railway winner Bawalaksana will be 2.5kgs closer to Trans Siberia in the weights.
"That will make things a lot easier for us."
The Telegraph appeals as the perfect race for the long-striding sprinter and Searle said he has just one more wish.
"I wouldn't mind seeing a shower or rain or two in the next couple of weeks.
"I think the tracks are getting so hard at the moment that not many horses are enjoying them.
"I know all us trainers moan about wet tracks in winter but deep down inside we know not many horses really like it concrete hard."
But there is another feature at the Trentham carnival Searle is looking forward to and he does not even have a runner.
Searle has rarely been without a flying machine juvenile in his team and the Magic Millions series have been good to him. But his best baby this season, Quality Orange, is not eligible.
"But I am still looking forward to the race because it should be a ripper.
"I have had my horses racing against both Aka Bilk and Tristachine and I can't see much between them.
"If anything, I would have to go for Aka Bilk because he looks the more natural 2-year-old while Tristachine looks like she will be better next season. But they are both pretty awesome."
No summer stayers
If ever there was a good time to panic about the lack of depth of New Zealand's summer stayers, now is it.
While staying stars like Jezabeel, Aerosmith and Champagne have proved they can hold their own anywhere, that anywhere is not on New Zealand tracks this summer.
If the cupboard looked pretty bare in the Auckland Cup, staying fans could be starving by Wellington Cup time.
Four of the top five horses in the weights for the great race are definite non-starters.
Veteran crocks Count Chivas and Magnet Bay are equal topweights on 58kgs but both are unlikely to race again.
That being the case, dual Wellington Cup winner Ed, who looked back to something like his best with a gutsy second in the Waikouaiti Cup on Friday, will carry the No 1 saddlecloth.
At least that would provide a sentimental crowd favourite as the equine dinosaur tried to emulate Great Sensation and Castletown as a Wellington Cup threepeater.
Ed has never lacked for horsemanship during his Trentham assignments, with Damien Oliver piloting him in his firsts Cup win and Lance O'Sullivan the second.
And his new southern trainer Tommy Beckett has called on another big gun in Jim Collett for this year's Cup.
Right below Ed in the weights will be Dannevegas, because the only other horses above her in the weights, Bonsai Pipeline and Yes Indeed, are certain non-starters at Trentham.
The high attrition rate means Auckland Cup winner Irish Chance will leapfrog every other stayer in the country, going from Auckland Cup lightweight to Wellington Cup third topweight in one race.
Horse Racing: Searle out for sprint revenge
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