That was by a seriously good horse in Sacred Satono but there was plenty to like about Mustang Valley, Sharp N Smart and Skew Wiff while a few big names from back in the field made ground without being pushed, as tends to be the case at the trials.
Last Tuesday there were some even bigger names on show as Legarto looked very sharp for so early in the season, as did Bonny Lass and the Wexford stablemates Waitak and Dragon Leap.
Most connections have indicated they want to return to Te Rapa for the Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate on August 24, although some will be held back until the Tarzino at Hastings.
Almost all want the same thing - a track no worse than soft.
While the difference between a soft 7 and heavy 10 can be as small as a windy day before a race meeting or no rain on the actual day, to the trainers the two things are worlds apart.
On a soft 7, almost every horse on that hero list will start in their desired targets.
But downgrade the track to a heavy 10 and you get what we had last year, Legarto being scratched from the second leg of the Hawke’s Bay triple crown races, the Arrowfield Plate, on the morning of the race.
Many trainers don’t want to risk undoing months of hard work and damaging their horse’s confidence for the season ahead by running them fresh up on a heavy track.
They dip, they dive, many don’t enjoy it and some plain don’t try. It can be an unpleasant experience for the horses and impacts recovery and mindset.
Basically, it sucks.
Some trainers will choose to wait or like Cambridge trainer Andrew Forsman and negate the risk by taking their horses to Australia.
That is where he sent Aegon yesterday while 3-year-old stablemates Red Sea and Yaldi could join him there before long unless the New Zealand weather takes a turn.
If (there’s that word again) that happens, we could have a stunning spring, with the Foxbridge possibly getting many weight-for-age stars before the Tarzino has a lineup like this: Legarto, Crocetti, Waitak, Dragon Leap, Skew Wiff, Bonny Lass, Pier and Scared Satano.
That is proper group one racing, maybe not quite like the glory days of Sunline and Starcraft racing in corresponding Hastings races, but featuring serious transtasman quality horses and providing punters with an elite but even betting contest.
New Zealand thoroughbred racing is starting the most important and exciting seasons in its history and, if the superstars start out here they are more chance of staying here, whereas if they jump across the Tasman that is usually the last we see of them until next year.
It is up to the weather gods now.
