Racing: All has been revealed

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16 Dec, 2016 04:00 PM2 mins to read

Potential buyers have been circling around the son of Alamosa, pictured here. Photo / NZPA

Victory for Undercover at Awapuni today may spell the end of his New Zealand career.

Potential buyers have been circling around the son of Alamosa, who will step out in the Rich Hill Stud 3YO on his home track.

"If he was to win then he would be qualified for Hong Kong and there's been a fair bit of interest in him," said trainer Kevin Gray, who, with wife Kathleen, also bred and races the colt.

"He's out of Shy Belt, who won three races for us and we took her all the way down to Invercargill for a stakes race but she cracked her pelvis.

"She was by Kingdom Bay and we got her home after about four months and had quite a few foals and winners out of her.

"This one [Undercover] got his name because Kathleen didn't think we should have bred from Shy Belt again, but I snuck her around to Bill Gleeson's place to go to Alamosa - I had to keep the mare under cover.

"He's a really nice horse and he's drawn a decent marble on Saturday," Gray said yesterday. "We might ride him just a bit colder this time."

Undercover, who will be aimed toward the Levin Classic if a sale doesn't eventuate, led in his last outing before he was run down by Leading Role, who he meets a kilo better off in the weights in their rematch.

Meanwhile, a six-figure bonus has resulted in a change of plan for Nymph Monte.

With $1 million now on offer to any horse to win the City of Auckland Cup, the Avondale Cup and the Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup, trainer Grant Nicholson has altered his charge's programme.

"We were looking at the Zabeel Classic, but that $1 million is a big carrot so the preference is now the City of Auckland Cup," he said.

"After that he'll run in the Herbie Dyke Stakes and then back up into the Avondale Cup. I'm not worried about that, he's done it before and then it's three weeks to the Auckland Cup."