Racing: Casa de Campo on way to Sydney Cup

There is a strong chance Casa de Campo will contest the Sydney Cup.

Saturday's expected win in the $50,000 Team Weallens BOP Cup at Tauranga took the promising stayer a long way towards a positive result in that direction.

Although the A$700,000 Sydney Cup on April 25 was on the minds of the connections of Casa de Campo on Saturday, for syndicate shareholder John Barber the victory was as much about remembering their former partner in the horse, the late Richard Nelson.

Nelson, who served as a director of the Auckland Racing Club, died last year.

Casa de Campo himself has had his share of misfortune.

He was scratched at the start of the Tatts Cup in Brisbane when another horse alongside played up in the barriers then, according to John Barber, he was unlucky in the Ipswich Cup and more recently he lost rider Mark Du Plessis in the closing stages of the recent Auckland Cup.

Between all that his career was threatened by tendon problems while being prepared by Roger James.

"Roger was fabulous," says Barber, "He recommended we send him to the Logan and Gibbs stable at Ruakaka where the beach work would help him. And it has."

Donna Logan said Casa de Campo had only to bounce through the next few days to book his fare to Sydney.

"He licked his bowl clean after the trip home from yesterday's race, so it can't have hurt him. He's a tough bugger."

Andrew Calder gave the gelding a perfect trail and he slid through along the inside to score nicely.

Jacowils has certainly come solid and he's about to try something new - the 1600m of the $200,000 Easter at Ellerslie.

His lazy approach to racing should greatly assist the 1200m group one Railway winner to see out the metric mile.

Owner and trainer Kristine Stead told apprentice Masa Tanaka to "get at" Jacowils in the home straight and Tana got the job done in a tight finish with outsider Taking The Mickey, who ran a blinder when resuming.

John Wheeler's experiment with All In Black paid Tauranga dividends.

The New Plymouth trainer brought the promising mare to the Bay of Plenty to see how she would cope with her first attempt at racing right-handed.

The $21,875 winner's cheque provided him with the answer.

"I'm thinking of taking her to Brisbane and I really needed to know if she could go this way around."

All In Black finished strongly to grab another Central Districts visitor, Lumination, who is close to winning again.

Late Edition did well to put a tough Telecom Derby effort behind him and win over 1600m on Saturday.

"He's not quite strong enough to run the 2400m yet," said co-trainer Graeme Sanders.

"He's probably a 2000m horse."

Late Edition led and was suited by the slow pace he set for himself. Runner-up Wearemarshall wasn't suited and is probably looking now for more distance.

Scarlet Vanhara flew from the tail to grab third.

Santangelo and Attalla both received plenty of points for their gallantry in tough finishes on Saturday.

Both mares looked vulnerable in the closing stages, but each showed plenty of courage to get the money.