Karaka Millions: Opie Bosson to run hot on Cool N Fast at Ellerslie

Race horse Cool N Fast, trained by Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, will be ridden by Opie Bosson this weekend.

If Mark Walker is right, then the TAB bookies are wrong.

And it could be a gear change that has been held back for tomorrow’s TAB Karaka Millions meeting that makes the crucial difference.

The champion trainer and partner Sam Bergerson take 15 horses to tomorrow’s Ellerslie extravaganza with an incredible weight of history on their back as Te Akau Racing try to win the 2-year-old race for the eighth straight year.

They also have reps in the other five races at the twilight meeting, but while the $1.5 million 3-year-old 1600m is now the richest race on the night, it is the juvenile dash that has been a cornerstone of the stable’s incredible success over the last decade.

Five of those seven winners have been with hero jockey Opie Bosson in the saddle - he missed one of the others through suspension and finished third last season after choosing the wrong horse, based on barrier draws.

After much speculation, Bosson has chosen to ride $7 chance Cool N Fast tomorrow even though stablemate Bellatrix Star is far more favoured at $4, with Warren Kennedy to ride.

Walker says that was Bosson’s call and he can’t split the pair.

“I think there is nothing between them, or in fact any of our four in that race,” Walker told the Herald.

“Bellatrix Star is a good tough filly and will be hard to beat, but Cool N Fast has a great draw and we have been saving the blinkers for Saturday.

“He has been a bit too laid-back, but we saved the blinkers for this week to try to turn him on, and if it works - and I think it will - he will be very hard to beat.”

Of all the gear changes in racing, having blinkers on for the first time tends to have the most dramatic effect, and if they turbo-charge Cool N Fast, his $7 price could be the best value all night as, laziness aside, he ticks every other box.

The 3-year-old race is a far steeper mountain to climb, with some class fillies between standing between the stable’s pair of Tokyo Tycoon and Talisker and the winner’s circle.

“It is a good field, but Talisker was really brave pushing Crocetti in the 2000 Guineas, and forget Tokyo Tycoon’s last run as he didn’t like the wet track and was a bit sore after.

“Opie liked his gallop so much the other day, he swapped rides so he [Tokyo Tycoon] can get some.”

As for the Walker/Bergerson best of the day?

“Maven Belle [R2, number one] is where she needs to be.”

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.