Racing: Cash in on Wall Street

Wall Street ticks all the boxes for the season's first group one race. Photo / Simon Baker

There are a couple of 10-second pieces of electronic vision available that will probably convince you Wall Street will win tomorrow's $200,000 Mudgway Stakes at Hastings.

One is between the 300m-100m in the group three Thompson Handicap at Trentham on March 20 and the other between the same two markers of the group two Couplands Bakeries Mile at Riccarton on November 11.

The explosive sprint Wall Street turns on through that period of both races is almost certainly the best of any natural metric miler in the country last season.

And if you are of the mind that those two races were run on good surfaces and tomorrow's group one won't be, there is a third back-up that will satisfy you.

Take in the home-straight sprint Wall Street produced when he left Samurai and The Twist 4.3 lengths behind in the Redcraze Bowl at Awapuni on October 31.

The slow surface that day was very close to the likely conditions at Hastings tomorrow even if the opposition wasn't. Yesterday, the track was a slow (9).

There is in certain quarters a perception that Wall Street is good only on firm tracks, which is surprising given his record of four starts on slow tracks for two wins and a placing.

His only unplaced run on a slow track was when he clipped heels and nearly fell and looked unlucky in the 1200m Telegraph at Trentham in January. He is one from two on a dead track.

Wall Street is by Montjeu, whose horses almost all manage rain-affected footing.

Trainer Jeff Lynds is one who is unconcerned about track conditions.

"No, he'll get through it," he said simply yesterday.

Wall Street had an uninterrupted preparation when rain washed out the barrier trial meeting he was to have run at then also forced the cancellations of last week's Foxton races, where he was to have galloped between races. Lynds compensated with a strong gallop in very testing wet conditions at Hastings last Friday and feels that, overall, the horse's readiness for tomorrow's big test has not been undermined.

"I'm very happy with him. He had a couple of issues last season which he seems to have overcome."

Safely through tomorrow, Wall Street will take on the 1600m Windsor Park Plate, for which the TAB has him as $4 clear favourite, after which a decision will be made about the remainder of the spring.

"We want to see where he's at before firming up on a plan," said the Awapuni horseman.

"He's in the Cox Plate and there is the Emirates [1600m] on the final day at Flemington [on November 6].

"These first two races will tell us where we need to be going."

Wall Street is the $4.50 Mudgway favourite on Final Field betting.

He replaced as favourite Mufhasa, for whom track conditions remain a question.

In front is generally a good place to be on decent footing at Hastings, but a slow rating would have the potential to turn the Mudgway, run late in the day, into a swoopers' affair, disadvantaging on-pace runners like Mufhasa.

"He's very fit," said trainer Stephen McKee of Mufhasa, who has not raced since the Queensland winter carnival, where he performed very well.

Another who found her career best form in Queensland was Matamata mare Pennacchio, who has been heavily backed to win this.

She has not raced since winning back-to-back handicaps at Eagle Farm, but many of her best races have been when fresh.

Those two Brisbane wins were on decent surfaces, but Pennacchio can handle slow tracks well.

"Along with Keep The Peace, she is our worst result," said TAB bookie Thad Taylor.