Racing: Bangers And Mash gets toey

Two tiny pieces of metal many have saved the career of Bangers And Mash.

And trainer Derek Balle is hoping they may help transform the one-time punters' enemy into a replacement for stable star Martina H.

Martina H has been Balle's pride and joy for the past five seasons. She won the Rowe Cup and Dominion Handicap and should have won two Interdominions, throwing both away when looking the winner in the home straight.

That great mare is now just a few weeks away from the broodmare's paddock, having safely tested in foal to Muscles Yankee.

"I will give her a few starts at the Auckland Cup carnival and maybe at the outside she will hang around to defend the Rowe Cup, but that is unlikely," says Balle.

While she will leave a huge hole in Balle's team he believes Bangers And Mash can at least be his next open class flagship.

"He is as good as most of the open class horses on his day but it has taken us a long time to get him right."

The latest step in that progress was the addition of toe weights to Bangers And Mash, a piece of gear Balle had never tried on a racehorse before.

That involved attaching 2oz weights to each of Bangers And Mash's front hooves, keeping him more balanced and therefore more likely to trot under pressure, which is when he used to gallop.

"I never used them before but I was experimenting with them one day on a younger horse who wasn't much good and they made an improvement to him.

"So I thought I'd try them on Bangers to see if they provided the same improvement and they seem to have done the job.

"Gene (Robb, driver) said he felt safe the whole way when he won at Cambridge last start."

On that occasion Bangers And Mash set a track record in a 2200m mobile but reverts to a standing start and a 40m handicap in race nine at Alexandra Park tonight.

With those disadvantages in mind Balle would simply like to see him make it around the 2700m event without galloping.

"He is a long-term project, trying to get his confidence right, because if he does that then one day I think he can win a big race.

"He is good enough to win this week but the first priority with him is just to get him around in one piece.

"If he does that then he is always hard to beat anyway."

Bangers And Mash faces a tricky field, up against veteran speedster Gold, the in-form Dalton Invasion, class mare Chooks Minnie and the enigmatic Tony H.

Balle is adopting a wait-and-see attitude to his two other starters tonight, Galleons Sunset in race two and Jag Star in race seven.

"Galleons Sunset is good enough to win but isn't quite as comfortable right-handed as he is at Cambridge, where he won last start.

"So maybe he will struggle to beat Bellam's Last Play and Royal Don, although eventually I think he will go through the grades."

Jag Star is fresh from a win at Tauranga but jumps several classes, taking on Alta Serena and Mr Bojangles.