Racing: Beach Ball set to bounce ahead of Australian visitors

Beach Ball winning at Ellerslie, in December. Photo / Race Images

Ricky May has no doubts about the horsepower he will be sitting behind in the Lamb And Hayward Canterbury Classic at Addington tonight.

But for all the talent of last season’s NZ Cup placegetter Beach Ball, May knows tonight’s golden ticket race to this year’s IRT New Zealand could come down to manners.

The Classic brings together many of those ranked between five and 20 for the NZ Cup and might be the last realistic chance for some to get into the race, with the first three home tonight guaranteed a Cup berth.

Beach Ball, courtesy of a wonderful Cup week last season, finds himself almost certainly in the Cup again, ranked 11th and with a few of those immediately behind, particularly the Australians, unlikely to chase a start.

Yet for all his proven open-class form he was rated a $15 chance by the TAB for tonight’s race and May says how quickly Beach Ball can begin may determine how right those odds are.

“I have driven him at three workouts this time in and last week he felt really good,” says May.

“I know Kevin [Chapman, trainer] has had a few little issues along the way, but we all know he finished third in the Cup last year so he can obviously beat most of these this week with the right run.

“But the start will be crucial. As we have seen in most of the races this spring they have been won by the horses who settle handy.

“There are some fast beginners on that front line so where we settle will determine how much work we have to do and maybe his overall chances.” Few in tonight’s race can match Beach Ball’s best, with plenty in tonight’s field still earning their open-class stripes.

So that takes us back to the start and those standing start manners.

If the last two winners of this race, B D Joe (2022) or Republican Party (2023) could get handy then they might have the automatic respect to work their way to the front and possibly dominate.

But in a race with plenty of hard-running stayers and those NZ Cup spots up for grabs it wouldn’t surprise to see one or two drivers throw caution to the wind and the recent on speed bias of the lead-up races be reversed.

Tonight’s other meeting at Alexandra Park should continue the superb recent form of the Purdon/Phelan stable who have red hot favourites in Meant To Be (Race 4, No 5) and Duchess Megxit (Race 7, No 5) and another huge chance with Always B Elitye (Race 6, No 3).

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.