Racing: Attack quartet primed

Peter Williams says he and his wife Dawn have four strong chances to win tomorrow's $80,000 Canterbury Gold Cup.

If it rains in Christchurch today or tomorrow they'll have none.

Coup Entrepreneur, Fiscal Madness, The Raj and Royal Miss give the Williams stable a remarkably powerful hand in the race that could be pivotal to the $750,000 Pick6 at Riccarton.

"Everything depends on the weather though," says Peter Williams.

"At the moment the track is slow, but any suggestion of rain and it will tip over into heavy.

"All four of ours will handle the track the way it is and all four will be out of play if it rains."

Balmuse will start favourite, but he will have to have recovered from his tough first-up win at Marlborough on Sunday to deny the Williams quartet.

Two weeks ago Coup Entrepreneur got up in the last stride to topple the hot favourite Fiscal Madness, but that may not necessarily be a good guide to this race.

Fiscal Madness meets his stablemate 1.5kg better off this time - a considerable amount on an "off" track - and Fiscal Madness did not help his chances in the earlier contest by racing a little flat-footed in the home straight.

"The secret to him [Fiscal Madness] is that he has to have genuine pace in his races," said Peter Williams.

"If he doesn't then he always pulls hard. He did that the other day when he was tucked in behind them and when he got out in the straight it took him a fair while to wind up.

"He went from jogging to sprinting and it took him a bit of time to do it and at the same time the other horse [Coup Entrepreneur] was already rolling and had his momentum up.

"When Fiscal Madness doesn't pull he can really finish his races off."

To further confuse the issue The Raj and Royal Miss worked the best of the Williams team at Riccarton yesterday morning.

Royal Miss might look the lesser of the four on paper, but Williams rates her chances very highly.

"She went a really good race the other day [fourth behind Coup Entrepreneur] and I think she can really win this.

"All four of ours can do it."

Royal Miss is by Volksraad, the vast majority of whose horses appreciate firm tracks. Williams says the mare has good form on firm footing, but is better when there is give in the surface.

Coup Entrepreneur and Fiscal Madness will be ridden by their regular jockeys, Daniel Bothamley and Jamie Bullard. Lisa Crop is engaged for The Raj and Brian Hibberd for Royal Miss.

Top class horse that he is, Balmuse has been set a real task to come back within six days from a very tough run to win under 60.5kg in his first start in more than six months.

Trainer Kevin Myers will have thought this campaign through very carefully though and it's worth remembering that Balmuse, as a Kelt Capital winner, comes in better in the weight-for-age scale than any other runner.

For the Pick6 you have to take the view that Balmuse is the horse to beat. Greatly in his favour is that although he is probably best on footing that is just yielding, his form on a slow track is two wins and a placing from three starts and on heavy two wins and a placing from four starts.

If it rains he will still cope while others will struggle.

If most of the good horses are out of play, Central Districts visitor Mikki Street might figure.

He has good form on slow tracks and if you go back five starts to January, he finished 1.5 lengths off Kristov at Manawatu.

In his favour is that he is a winner a Riccarton.

* Latest betting: Canterbury Gold Cup, $80,000, wfa, group three, 2000m (run at Riccarton tomorrow):

$3 Balmuse; $5.50 Fiscal Madness; $8 Mr Toff; $10 The Raj; $11 Coup Entrepreneur; $12 Mikki Street; $14 Royal Miss; $22 Delbrae; $26 Live The Reality, Exonerate, Get Up; $31 Western Line, Likes To Rule, Pasco; $41 Royal Lady; $61 Savannah Zaan.