KEY POINTS:
Pukekohe training partners Richard Yuill and Stephen Goodin and their star apprentice Sam Spratt are the biggest losers in Needuask's Telegraph Handicap no-show today.
The horse's Auckland owners Barry and Deidre Neville-White have sold a share in their Railway Handicap runner-up to chase seven-figure riches from Laurie Laxon's premiership-topping Singapore stable.
While disappointed the Concorde Handicap winner isn't squaring off against Seachange in the $250,000 group one at Trentham, Barry Neville-White is looking forward to racing his first horse outside Australasia.
"There is a series of races up there for him and a million-dollar event in three months," said Neville-White, part-owner of Yuill and Goodin's Karaka Million hopeful NukeTime.
"You don't get many chances to race on the international scene and I think he'll be the ideal horse for the give in the ground they have there all the time.
"If it doesn't come off, it doesn't come off, but at least we can say we've given it a go."
Neville-White says Laxon, a long-time friend and former Cambridge-based trainer, approached him with the plan before Christmas.
When a proposed December sale to Hong Kong fell through because of a failed vet-test - the horse has a minor knee growth - the Neville-Whites where happy to take up Laxon on the offer.
"We've sold a percentage in the horse to a client of Laurie's stable," said Neville-White, who also has shares in Queensland Oaks winner Eskimo Queen.
"The details are confidential, but I can say we retain a significant percentage.
"I know Richard [Yuill] is a bit disappointed but he understands that if he ran in the money at Trentham he'd be up in the handicaps here, and if he does come back here to race, he'll be coming back to Richard."
Meanwhile, the Yuill-Goodin camp can gain some compensation with new Trentham headliners Lady Alberton in the group two $100,000 Ford Wakefield Challenge Stakes and Prince Kaapstad in the group three $100,000 Wellington Stakes today.
The Matamata Breeders Stakes-bound Lady Alberton was the TAB's $5 fixed odds favourite late yesterday after her brave last-start win in the Eclipse Stakes at Ellerslie on New Year's Day.
Prince Kaapstad, who is dropping back to 1600m after winning the Great Northern Guineas (2100m), was rated an $11-fixed odds chance.
The son of Kaapstad, however, may be a better chance in the race than those odds indicate.
Yuill said this week that the mount of an in-form Spratt had freshened up a treat since his Ellerslie win on Boxing Day and he could upset the favourites.
