Racing: Awful weight, lousy barrier for Mufhasa

Sam Spratt celebrates after Mufhasa's win in the Telegraph at Trentham. Photo / Supplied

Trainer Stephen McKee will wait until this morning before deciding whether Mufhasa attempts a modern-day weight carrying record in Saturday's $300,000 Telegraph at Trentham.

Mufhasa has been allocated a staggering 61kg for the group one sprint and to make matters worse he has drawn barrier 16.

Mufhasa has won the Telegraph twice before, in 2009 carrying 55kg and last year with 56.5, both times when the group one had a 51kg minimum.

Even allowing for the fact it has a 52kg minimum on Saturday and Mufhasa has won at group one level in Australia this season, 61kg is an enormous weight by modern day racing standards.

That would see him give 2kg to last-start Railway winner Atomic Force, who has drawn perfectly for a speedster at barrier four, with unlucky Railway runner Durham Town drawn the ace and carrying just 53.5kg.

McKee spoke to the owners of Mufhasa yesterday but no definitive decision was made, waiting to see if any of the circumstances around the race - track, rival scratching - changed before they need to make the travel decisions today.

"It is unlikely he will start but the definite decision won't be made until the morning," said McKee.

As much as Mufhasa loves Trentham and the Telegraph field lacks depth, it is a far easier race to miss now it is only worth $300,000 than the last three times he contested the great race at $1 million a pop, especially with suitable weight-for-age races just around the corner. While Mufhasa missing the race would help Aussie speedster Atomic Force as he chases the tricky Railway-Telegraph double, it won't help backers of the favourite much.

He opened at $2.60 with the New Zealand TAB yesterday and with Mufhasa at $6.50 if he is withdrawn there will be a substantial reduction in the dividend for any bets already placed on Atomic Force.

His Railway-winning rider Nash Rawiller will be allowed to ride Atomic Force before starting a 12-meeting suspension after losing the dramatic Magic Millions on the Gold Coast last Saturday in the inquiry room.

Rawiller will, however, miss the ride on Warhorse in the Karaka Million on Sunday week, with that mount likely to go to Matt Cameron.

There will be no shortage of superstar Aussie jockeys at the Ellerslie twilight meeting though, with Kerrin McEvoy coming to ride impressive last-start winner Mai Guru and Danny Nikolic, Hugh Bowman, Ben Melham and almost certainly Craig Williams also riding in our only $1 million race.

One of Trentham's other features on Saturday sees much-hyped Burgundy drawn alongside Ocean Park in the $70,000 Wellington Stakes.