By BARRY STREET
The connections of Count Cristo are going ahead with plans to race in Australia.
That is despite the horse's failure as hot favourite for the John Grylls Memorial Classic at Te Awamutu on Saturday.
Rider Vinny Colgan had a broken whip to show why Count Cristo had to be content with second, a length from Danny Day.
"He was coming right into the race, on the point of the home turn, when the whip broke," Colgan said, flourishing half a whip shaft.
"I'd just given him a one-two when the whip went all floppy, so I chucked the loose bit away.
"I'm not saying he'd have won. He's a wind-up type of horse who needs a longer straight than here at Te Awamutu, but I still say he'd have run the other horse closer."
It was Count Cristo's second unlucky near miss. Previously he had struck traffic problems when third, promoted to second, at Hastings on June 24.
Trainer Katrina Alexander, of Matamata, maintained that Count Cristo had done enough, without winning, to make further advances to a possible Caulfield Cup attempt.
"My husband and the owner are going over to Melbourne on Thursday to check out the facilities," she said.
"At this stage everything is on target for the Caulfield Cup.
"But, even if he doesn't make it into that race, there are plenty of other options for him over there."
In-form Takanini jockey Matthew Williamson was not surprised at the outcome of the John Grylls Memorial.
"Danny Day is a really good horse but a difficult one to ride," he said. "I've ridden him four times now for two wins and a dead unlucky effort. The other time he didn't get the ideal trip.
"But you have to be careful with him. He's been known to go about four lengths clear and pull up of his own accord. You can't use the whip on him."
* * *
Nathan Hanley was the toast of his mates after winning the Waikato Times Steeplechase and Yarndley Farms Highweight on horses he had never previously ridden.
Raceday doubles come rarely for jumps jockeys, but Hanley was confident about the chance of Keen in the steeplechase.
Keen trailed last year's Waikato Times Steeplechase winner, Belsay, most of the way and got the better of him by three lengths, despite botching a fence on the second lap.
Buoyed by that win, Hanley hopped on the Wanganui highweighter Star Of Hope supremely confident, even though he had not even seen the mare.
"Dummy" [Kevin] Myers said she was a good thing after running a couple of seconds, and he's a good trainer and a good judge. That was good enough for me.
True to form, Star Of Hope won as she liked after Hanley worked her out of a difficult rails position.
It was Hanley's most successful raceday since a 14-month transtasman stint in which he he rode six winners in all three states of Australia which hold jumps races.
He came home last Christmas with the promise of better rides here than in Australia, where the pick of his mounts were injured.
* * *
Matamata trainer Graham Richardson predicts that Roy's Dream, who won a class three 1150m for him at Te Awamutu on Saturday, will go "all the way to open class."
The 4-year-old Crested Wave mare has already overcome some deficiencies, notably her 15.1-hands lack of height and a "throwing" action with her forelegs.
When fully mature, she promises to embellish her record of 11 starts for three wins, three seconds and a third. She is adept on any ground from easy to heavy.
"She won my admiration last season when, even though she was only half a racehorse, she ran Ad Alta to a head in a race at Tauranga."
Two of Roy's Dream's more highly regarded stablemates are back in training.
They are 4-year-old mare Platonic, who won five races in a row this season, and Kensington Flyer, unbeaten in his last three races.
Platonic is being readied for some of the richer fillies and mares' races in Melbourne in the spring.
Another brilliant galloper back in full training is the rising 3-year-old filly Star Satire, who blotted her copybook only once this season because of a rain-affected track.
She won her first two races for Tauranga trainer Ross Taylor in runaway style and in exceptional times.
"You wouldn't credit how much she has grown and filled out," Taylor enthused on Saturday.
"She has been in work now for four weeks and, all going well, could line up in the first of next season's Filly of the Year races at Hastings."
* * *
Cambridge trainer Royce Dowling has not ruled out a Winter Cup attempt at Riccarton with Nothing Like A Tango, a favourite who beat only four home in the Waikato Times 1400 at Te Awamutu.
After a recent trials win, Nothing Like A Tango was labelled a first-up prospect, even though he had not raced for eight months.
"He missed the jump and didn't have the best of runs after that, but you would have to say he just blew out," Dowling said.
Upset winner of the race, Tio Lavender, was only mildly fancied by co-trainer Craig Ritchie.
"She is a mare who cannot carry 56kg, her handicap today, so it was a must that she went round with a claiming apprentice," Ritchie said.
"Sarah Boyd brought her weight down to 53kg and, I'm glad to say, rode her a treat."
Racing: Australia still on Count Cristo's agenda
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.