Orchestral was an impressive winner at the Karaka Millions. Photo / Trish Dunell
Orchestral was an impressive winner at the Karaka Millions. Photo / Trish Dunell
The King of the Derby says you can train horses to win the classic but you can’t make them Derby horses.
“What I have learned is, ultimately, they are either Derby horses or they aren’t,” says Roger James, who heads to Ellerslie today hunting his sixth win in our most iconic thoroughbred race.
These days training in partnership with Robert Wellwood, James has superstar filly Orchestral in the $ 1 million Trackside NZ Derby and at $1.40 she is one of the shortest-priced favourites in the history of the great race.
She ran away from similar or even better opposition to win both the Karaka Millions 3-Year-Old (1600m) and the Avondale Guineas (2100m) at her last two starts and the only question anybody seems to have is whether Orchestral can be quite as destructive over 2400m.
If James doubted it, she simply wouldn’t be at Ellerslie today.
“It is one reason I like to get close to my horses when they work, so you can hear them breathing.
“If it is clean and efficient it is half the battle, as long as the horse is good enough, which obviously she is.”
James, who has won the NZ Derby with Tidal Light (partnership with Jim Gibbs in 1986), Roysyn (1995), Zonda (1997), Hades (1999) and Silent Achiever (2012), says he will often tinker with a horse to help them learn how to relax.
“We sometimes change trackwork riders or the way they are worked to help them learn how to get it right.
“But at the end of the day, if they are a good clean-winded horse, a Derby or Oaks campaign is a lot easier.”
Exactly how good Orchestral may be is hard to tell but a mishap at the start of spring that saw her miss the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton may ultimately prove to be a blessing.
She looks a controlled ball of energy whereas many of the stars of spring are now in the spelling paddock as a long, hot summer of racing has taken its toll.
That is why many of those on the next lines of betting after Orchestral today are emerging gallopers who started their season in November or later: Australian raider Interlinked, Just As Sharp, Ascend The Throne, Mosinvader and bolter First Innings all missed the spring features.
Of them, Interlinked may be the best chance of beating Orchestral but trainer Trent Busuttin is realistic.
“We may be all running for second the way she won the Avondale Guineas, but you never know,” says the ex-pat.
Interlinked is a rare Australian raider on the $1 million NZ Derby.
The Derby is the centrepiece of a spectacular race day, with the Kings Plate bringing together most of New Zealand’s best sprinters and the Mufhasa Stakes for the 3-year-old speedsters full of class and potential.
The McKee Family Sunline Vase will be a crucial pointer to the NZ Oaks in two weeks and again has the feeling that those emerging after quiet preps could get the better of the spring stars.
And the new $350,000 innovation race the Rangitoto Classic, which doesn’t allow horses from the top 10 stake-earning stables on December 1, has worked, bringing together an eclectic bunch.
Once Ellerslie has finished around 5.55pm, punters will only have to wait 20 minutes to see Kiwi 3-year-olds Pendragon and Quintessa try to defend the Australian Guineas title Legarto won for New Zealand last year at Flemington.
Champion NZ sprinting mare Imperatriz will stay in Melbourne for her next start and carry 58k in the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington next Saturday.
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.
